Locum Appraisals Contributions
NHS England have confirmed, in a letter to English responsible officers, direct payment to locums undergoing appraisal has now ceased. This is being challenged nationally. In the same letter, NHS England have confirmed they believe a fair level of remuneration for appraisers is £500 per appraisal, with an additional amount of £70 for employer on costs. They have asked responsible officers to make efforts to move towards this standardised approach as quickly as possible, and by no later than 1 April 2014.

GP Health Services
Due to the national withdrawal of occupational health funding, GP Health (the local service) will cease as of 31 May. The service is a great loss to local GPs but GP Health have been running without funding since 1 April 2013 and are no longer in a position to do so. The detrimental impact of the lack of occupational health services and loss of funding (which just appears to have been sucked into the system somewhere and disappeared from all budgets) is being raised at a national, regional and local level.

Sessional GP Newsletter
This Spring issue of the Sessional GP Subcommittee’s Newsletter contains updates relating to pensions, injury benefit, claims for unfair dismissal and revalidation & appraisal. It also features articles from several contributors detailing their experiences with support groups for Sessional GPs, including advice on how to set up your own.