The following post relates to a planned event which may be cancelled or re-arranged in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. In either eventuality an updating article will be posted.
No fewer than 45 doctors applied for posts under a new GP recruitment drive supported by the Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative (SRMC).
And 26 of them are set to attend a recruitment event to be held on the weekend of 21st and 22nd March.
The applications were in response to an advertisement seeking GPs to work in two initiatives, one of them being the latest phase of the ‘Rediscover the Joy of General Practice’ scheme. Generally known simply as ‘The Joy’, it initially saw the recruitment of 33 GPs to work for short periods in vulnerable rural practices in the north of Scotland.
In the next phase of ‘The Joy’, doctors are being sought for practices throughout Scotland that have had GP recruitment and retention challenges.
The latest tranche of applicants also includes doctors interested in taking part in the new ‘Adventurers and Wanderers’ initiative. Designed to allow maximum flexibility, it will give doctors the opportunity to commit themselves to a particular practice while also being able to take up to 18 weeks a year of unpaid leave to pursue other interests.
As Orkney GP Dr. Charlie Siderfin, a medical adviser to the Scottish Government and the SRMC’s clinical lead, told us for an earlier post: “‘Wanderers and Adventurers’ will offer doctors the kind of flexibility in their life many crave while ensuring that practices benefit from dedicated nuclear teams of highly-motivated GPs.”
The success of the first phase of ‘The Joy’ encouraged Dr. Siderfin and the SRMC in the belief that there was scope to extend the initiative nationwide and to introduce at the same time the new ‘Adventurers and Wanderers’ scheme.
However, Martine Scott, the SRMC’s programme manager, said she was pleasantly surprised by the response rate to the recent twin advert for GP recruits.
She said: “By the closing date of 16th February we had 55 recorded enquiries about both schemes, which showed us that there is a definite interest in our attempts to find new ways of working in rural practice in Scotland. The 55 recorded enquires resulted in 45 GPs submitting applications, and 35 of them were shortlisted. Eight of these are to be interviewed and one has withdrawn, leaving 26 who will be attending our forthcoming recruitment/assessment event in the Golden Jubilee Conference Centre, Clydebank.”
At the event candidates will be assessed during a number of discussion groups using values-based criteria. The topics for discussion have been designed to help the candidates to think about some of the challenges faced in primary care and to encourage their further input into the development of ‘The Joy’ and the ‘Wanderers and Adventurers’ projects.
There will be plenty of time for questions and discussions, both in formalised groups and informally.
The entire weekend has been designed to engender creative thinking and enthusiasm and to bring a vibrant team together, and alongside the assessment process there will be a conference for the current Highlands and Islands rural support team – those GPs recruited in the first round of ‘The Joy’ – and the two teams will have an opportunity to interact with each other.
Martine added: “The challenges of the recruitment and retention of GPs in Scotland have been well recorded in recent years but we are now entering an exciting period in which, through what might be called out-of-the-box thinking, we are meeting these challenges head on.
“The success of these twin recruitment initiatives should be seen as a glowing endorsement of primary care in Scotland and I’m looking forward to meeting the potential new recruits.”