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Why you should locum in Stornaway
by Ethan Richardson
“This is one of the best kept secrets in the world of pharmacy locuming. The Western Isles hospital offers a unique opportunity to provide an unprecedented level of clinical care to your patients. The small community allows for closer working relationships between primary and secondary care and there are many opportunities to get involved with service development for those motivated to improve service delivery.Life on the island is surprisingly modern. Stornoway has all the shops and services you could need. There are some of the best sport’s facilities in Scotland with the added benefit of being exceptionally quiet, well, compared to anywhere else in the UK. Above all, you are surrounded by some of the most beautiful landscape in the world. To date, we’ve had better weather than South East England, with nine weeks of continual sunshine.
If you feel the need to escape the island, things couldn’t be easier; there are 6 return ferry services to the mainland and over 20 daily flights. Inverness is only 20 minutes be air, which can easily provide a weekend get-away, otherwise, an extra 10 minutes will get you Glasgow or Edinburgh.
There is a saying on the Western Isles: Slàinte mhor a h-uile là a chi ‘s nach fhaicwelcome, translated from Gaelic means: good health. Island life is friendly, personable, and a welcome change from city living.”
Ethan Richardson – locum pharmacist from the Western Isles Hospital in Stornaway.
Accounting Software
Discounted accountancy package for locum pharmacists
Guernsey Opportunity
Fancy working on the beautiful island of Guernsey? We have an opportunity for a six month or five year contract with a small independent chain. Call Shaun on 0800 881 8844 for more information. Salary on offer circa. £53,000
For general information on Guernsey visit the link below:
Mileage claims
The price of petrol has almost doubled over the last year. Why is it then that some pharmacy operators want to reduce the mileage allowance they will pay?
I also know that some locums are asking for, and obtaining additional travel time to cover the increased cost of fuel, particularly where they are travelling long distances.
So my message to all locums is consider more than ever ,the true cost of travel. The travel allowance is supposed to cover all costs associated with the mileage you undertake.
i’d be really intersted to hear your travel allowance comments – just click on comments.
Lucky Underwear!
The lengths people go to to land their dream job.
Frustrated pharmacist!
We received a very interesting email on Wednesday from a stressed out, under pressure area coordinator for a large multiple:
“After my current review there are changes which are to be implemented into my area , these changes are below.
Weekday Rates : Will be set at £21.50
Weekend Rates : Will be set at £24
.Mileage : Will be set at 25ppm. Please be aware that the first 40 miles of the journey will not be paid.
Train / Taxi : If a receipt is not received within 2 working days of the date worked then ****** is not accountable to pay for the journey. Please can you make sure that this is cascaded down to your locums as I will now be taking a hard line with them as my job is now on the line If I cannot bring the budget back into line.
Mobile Phones : Any locum found using a mobile phone in the Dispensary will be given one warning and then if it happens again I will refuse to use them in my area. Its not professional and the business of ****** requires full professionalism.”
This may come as no surprise to most of you but it does demonstrate that the area coordinators you deal with when you go direct are incentivised to pay you as little as possible and in the case of of claiming train and taxi expenses, have systems in place to try and stop you being reimbursed at all!
I know I have a vested interest in this, but to me it really is just common sense; If you go direct to a company you have little or no bargaining power, especially if you want to book well ahead. You really are just a RPSGB number as the email from ****** says “Weekday Rates : Will be set at £21.50″ – What if that locum performs 20 MUR’s? what if they have a clinical diploma? What if they dispense 1000 items or 50? Should all locums be paid the same? Of course they should if you just look at them as a number. After all, you only need a pharmacist to trade.
However when you start to think of locums as clinical professionals it becomes abundantly clear that you can’t “set the rates” you need to take into account the skills of the individual and the work they will undertake.
This, treating locums as numbers frustrates the hell out of me. I know that the vast majority of locums provide an excellent service and there’s a pretty good argument that they have to and much more than employed pharmacists. After all, I don’t know of one pharmacist in the 15 years since I qualified who was sacked for being a bad pharmacist and I can tell you, I’ve worked with a few who should have been. However as a locum you live or die by the service you provide. If they don’t like you they won’t book you.
The converse argument goes for locums who work through agencies. If we don’t get the rates for our locums they will go elsewhere!
It’s tricky JOB sometimes at PL-UK but a really rewarding one when we allow our locums to earn the remuneration they deserve and overcome these bully-boy, tactics of the “big boys”.
PS TOP TIP: If a company tries to reduce your rate or “set” a rate for all shops use your professional prerogative to tell them “thanks, but no thanks” and go elsewhere.
Income protection – follow up
I think that I’d better add a information request form relating to the income protection company – click on the link below for more information about them or see Friday 16th PL-UK News
http://www.pluk.co.uk/Images/pdfimages/uploads/pg%20contact%20form.pdf
New locum coordinators needed
PL-UK is projected to double in size this year. to make this happen we need to take on more locum coordinators.
Please click on the link below to have a look at the job description and person specification.
Full training will be providing plus laptop and broadband connection if needed for home workers.
Good basic salary plus bonuses make this a very attractive proposition for a person with experience as a dispenser, technician or healthcare assistant.
£100 introduction bonus paid if we take-on a candidate you introduce.
Priority areas: Midlands, South East, Scotland and South West
25+2 