Ockham Healthcare is running a series of podcasts and blogs on local locum GP chambers because of the impact they can have on an area struggling with GP recruitment. In this second blog in our series Ben Gowland calls on CCGs to do what they can to support their development – but warns against trying to control them.

The idea of having a local locum GP Chambers in the patch can be very attractive for Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). The advantages are clear (see my previous blog “10 reasons why your area needs a local locum GP chambers” here.), and it is a tangible way in which CCGs can be seen to be actively supporting local practices cope with the shortage of GPs.

The challenge comes because the establishment of the chambers lies outside of the control of the CCG. It is not as simple as deciding one is needed, and then charging someone within the CCG with setting one up and persuading a few locum GPs to join to get it off the ground.

This is because the chambers will only work if they are owned by the locum GPs themselves. And for them, the CCG-led model is not attractive. GP locum Dr Caroline Chill puts it like this, “If chambers are controlled by CCGs it makes being a locum less attractive, because it almost becomes a zero-hours contract with the terms and conditions being dictated by the practices using the service”.

All, however, is not lost! The idea of local locum GP chambers is attractive. It is attractive to some existing locum GPs who feel isolated and unsupported, to newly qualified GPs wanting to become a locum, and to GPs working in GP practices who for whatever reason do not want to continue in a specific practice but do not want to stop practicing as a GP altogether.

In all of our conversations with locum GPs working in local chambers, they described how they knew they wanted to be able to locum with peer support, but if they did not already know an existing local chambers they had to search to find out about the model. Unless one already exists locally, most GPs still do not know about them.

Step 1: Publicise the model locally. To start off with, you are unlikely to know who the potential GP members of the chambers will be. The aim is to connect those GPs who would like to be part of a local locum GP chambers (but might not know it yet!) with the idea of it. Publicising the model, and presenting it as something that gives locums control (rather than taking it away) will help make that connection.

Creating something from nothing requires a certain type of person. While some like to join something that already exists, there are those whose preference is to create something new and build it from scratch. It requires a certain level of drive and energy, and from our conversations with members of local chambers it is clear that this generally comes from one individual to start off with, who then draws in others along the way.

Step 2: Identify a leader. In order for the model to take off locally, the CCG will need to use all of its networks and contacts within the GP community to find a locum GP who wants to lead its development. Dr Mark Sage, a GP locum who set up the West Kent chambers, suggested the place to look would be either, “the well-established locums in an area, or the more recently qualified doctors, who are looking for a group they can affiliate with”. He suggested Programme Directors on VTS courses are important contacts, as they know the plans of the GPs leaving the course.

To be clear, this individual is not creating the chambers for the CCG, but for themselves. However, setting up something new is difficult as it requires a leap of faith that it is going to work, and can be challenging for someone who has never done anything like this before.

Step 3: Provide support for the leader. When we spoke to those who set up new chambers about the support they needed or received, this was not financial but rather moral support in terms of encouragement that the new model is going to work. The only practical action they described was help with the business case, in particular establishing the level of demand for locums from each of the local practices so that the newly formed chambers could be clear there would be sufficient demand for their business. Every chambers has since found that demand far exceeds the capacity they can provide!

In conclusion, it is clear from our research that, whilst successful locum GP chambers cannot be set-up nor controlled by a CCG, every CCG has a role to play in creating the environment in which they can flourish.