Terms and Conditions of Booking

Dr Peter Weil, Locum GP

GMC 6025189
Booking Arrangements and Confirmation of Booking
Whomever from the practice contacts me to deal with a booking will be deemed to be fully representing the practice, be they the practice manager or otherwise.
Once negotiated, I will email a confirmation of the booking to the practice in all cases, appending a copy of these terms and conditions.
The exchange of emails will constitute our contract, and the terms and conditions which follow will apply in all cases, unless specifically negotiated otherwise.
Once confirmed, cancellation will incur a fee, as detailed below.
Terms of Booking
The following terms should be included when confirming bookings:
1. Start time: the starting time of the booking is the time from which I am first expected to be available to the Practice.
2. Finish time: the time of completion of the booking. Work done after this time will be charged as additional work.
3. Number and Types of Session required, and Duration of Booking (see below)
4. Whether House Visits, Repeat Prescribing, and/or Patient Results Reviewing will be required (see below)
Normal Sessional Periods and Booking Intervals
A half-day booking is for a continuous period of either three or three and a half hours.
A full day booking is comprised of two half-day sessions.
The midday period between two sessions of a full day booking should be free of practice commitments, unless separately negotiated, in which case a fee will be agreed.
Patients should be booked not more frequently than at 10-minute intervals.
In any session, there should be a 10-minute mid-session break.
The last 30 minutes of a session should be allocated for administration associated with the surgery, such as phonecalls and letters.
The last appointment slot of a booked surgery session should begin at least 10 minutes before the end of the surgery session (e.g. a session due to finish at 6.00pm should have the last patient booked no later than 5.50pm).
Thus:
a three and a half hour session would typically consist of 17 patient consultations, a 10 minute mid-session break, plus 30 minutes administration time
a three hour session would typically consist of 14 patient consultations, a 10 minute mid-session break, plus 30 minutes administration time.
The Work To Be Done In Consultation
This is difficult to define.
I would expect to provide face-to-face consultation services as well as associated appropriate data entry into the practice computer and QOF data/Read coding of clinical observations (such as diagnosis, blood pressure, smoking status etc. as these arise).
I will also record QOF data in writing if I am in any doubt about the computer accepting the codes. I appreciate that practice income will depend on this work done during the consultation.
So-called 'intimate examinations' will only be carried out with a nurse chaperone; the responsibility for providing this lies with the booking practice.
'Extras' Consulting and Additional Work
Emergency extras are not normally seen, and will attract an additional payment. If they are added, they should be added at the end of the surgery at 10 minute intervals.
Any additional work which causes me to leave significantly later (20 minutes or more) than the agreed time will be subject to an additional charge.
Examples of 'additional' work include: a patient booked at the finish time or other administrative tasks for which adequate time has not been allowed by the practice.
House Visits
House visits need to be negotiated in advance.
They are only done after a morning surgery, not an afternoon surgery, unless negotiated previously.
The defense unions advise that house visits carry an increased medico-legal risk for locum GPs. This contributes to the increased time required for house visits done by locum GPs - I would expect to cover one visit for each 25 to 30 minutes allocated.
Local circumstances, e.g. excessive distances, may increase the time required. In these circumstances, the expectation of 2 visits in an hour should be revised accordingly.
Repeat Prescriptions and Special Prescribing Requests
The defense unions advise locum doctors doing repeat prescriptions to review the case notes for every patient, regardless of the system used to manage repeats, and that there are higher medico-legal risks associated with this.
Because of this, this service is charged separately to ordinary sessional work, on an hourly rate basis.
In addition, time for providing this service must be made separate and distinct to the patient administration associated with ordinary sessions.
I will not sign prescriptions without being confident that they are safe and correct.
Patient Results Reviewing
As with repeat prescriptions, reviewing patient results carries a higher medico-legal risk, takes longer to perform, and will generate more queries than when performed by the patient's own GP.
Because of this, this service is charged separately to ordinary sessional work, on an hourly rate basis.
In addition, time for providing this service must be made separate and distinct to the patient administration associated with ordinary sessions.
Drug Dependency
I do not initiate prescriptions for opiates or benzodiazepines for the purpose of maintenance, and I do not initiate prescriptions for methadone. However, I expect to see patients with drug dependencies for general health care.
'Emergency Doctor' Cover
I am available to provide 'Emergency Doctor' cover outside of the normal sessional period.
This is subject to previous agreement and is charged differently to ordinary sessional work, on an hourly rate basis.
Drugs and Equipment
I will provide and maintain personal medical equipment such as a stethoscope, otoscope, portable sphygmomanometer, and ophthalmoscope. I do not carry more specialised equipment such as a nebuliser, defibrillator, or oxygen.
I do carry a small supply of drugs and associated equipment. I would use this only if a suitable portable pack was not provided by the practice.
Generally, however, I would expect practices to provide a suitable portable pack for when I conduct home visits or provide emergency cover. This should include prescription forms, emergency drugs, syringes, and so forth, and should be available from the time that such cover begins.
I expect practices to ensure that adequate supplies of in-date emergency medication and equipment for administration are available in the surgery, if required.
The practice will need to provide a dictaphone if required for preparing correspondence, or provide photocopying facilities if letters are to be hand-written.
Information for Locums
It will help me if you can provide an up to date information pack. A universal model has been designed by the National Association of Sessional GPs (

I expect a list of internal phone numbers, and relevant external phone numbers for referrals, to be provided.
If your practice uses a computer systems that I am unfamiliar with, adequate training should be provided when I first attend the practice.
Rates of Pay
Are negotiated prior to confirmation of booking, and will be confirmed by email.
Mileage and Parking
I do not charge mileage within 20 miles of the EH8 area. Outside this area a charge will apply of 50p/mile, counted from my home to the workplace and including distance travelled for house visits.
If parking is not provided then I shall expect the practice to be responsible for the cost of parking. This includes parking tickets incurred whilst on house visits, although all due care will be taken to avoid this.
Private/non-NHS work
For brief private work done within the booked time (such as private medical certificates) I will charge the patient the practice's customary rate, or if unsure, then what I consider a reasonable fee, and pass the fee to the practice.
Other private work may be undertaken after negotiation.
Payment
I will invoice practices at the end of the week or after completing the locum period with the practice, whichever is sooner.
The preferred methods of payment are cheque or BACS payment, for which practices may request my bank details after the booking has been confirmed.
I will need the practice to sign a superannuation form (Form A) at the completion of the locum period.
This will be returned to the PCT with the relevant details on Form B.
Surcharge for late payments
I appreciate payment within 5 working days of receipt of the invoice.
Payments received more than 28 days after the invoice date will be subject to a 10% surcharge of the total amount due.
Cancellation
Every effort will be made to provide the cover specified, or alternative cover. However, I reserve the right to terminate locum cover in exceptional circumstances, or if the terms and conditions in this document are breached.
Cancellation Fee
Bookings cancelled by the practice will be subject to a cancellation fee, as follows:
Cancellation within 24 hours of the booked date will require a fee of 100% of the payment agreed.
Cancellation less than or equal to 7 days before the booked date will require a fee of 75% of the payment agreed.
Cancellation between 8 and 21 days before the booked date will require a fee of 25% of the payment agreed.
Cancellation 22 days or more before the booked date will not attract a fee.
Complaints
In the unlikely event that a complaint should be received from a patient, the practice must contact me immediately by email and/or telephone, and send me a copy of the complaint and any relevant medical notes by post within 14 days of the complaint being received.
The practice must also agree to involve me fully in the resolution of the complaint, including, but not limited to, sending me copies of all paperwork and correspondence related to the handling of the complaint.
Quality Control
In order to ensure the service provided is of the best quality, and for appraisal and revalidation purposes, I may wish to give a questionnaire to patients, video consultations, or have you complete a quality questionnaire. I will obtain consent in advance before performing any quality tests.