Australian Doctors interested in working in after hours medical deputising practice on the Gold Coast.
Chevron After Hours Medical Service keeps a register of any doctor who wishes to participate in the after hours general practice roster. Some doctors will undertake this work on a full-time basis but most doctors prefer to work in normal hours general practices and participate with us on a part-time basis. We have generally relied in recent years on pre-vocational, overseas trained doctors to do the bulk of the difficult shifts, as these shifts have not been attractive for local GPs. As we have to cover 14 hours every night, we try to make the clinic shifts as amenable to general practitioners as possible and have shifts from 3 to 8 hours. We start each evening with 4 doctors at Southport and 2 at Palm Beach and 2 at Tweed Heads as well as 1-2 on home visiting shifts for the northern and southern Gold Coast. Home visiting shifts are from 6 to 12 hours duration. Any doctor who may be interested in after hours work is invited to contact the Medical Director or the rostering manager – email ‘mail@medical-locums.com’. We try to accommodate any local GP or Australian trained doctors who may be interested in working with us.
Currently, clinic shifts that are available include: Monday to Friday: 6pm till 9/10/11pm; 8pm till midnight or 1am; 10/11/midnight/1am till 6am; and Saturdays Sundays Public Holidays: 6/7/8/10 am till 2/3/4/5/6pm, 2/3/4/5/6pm till 8/9/10/11/12 pm; 10/11/midnight/1am till 6am.
Home visiting shifts include: Monday – Friday: 6/7/8pm till 11/12 or 8am; 11/12 till 8am; Saturdays Sundays Public Holidays: 7/8 am till 1/2pm or 5/6/7/8 pm; 5/6/7/8pm till 11/midnight or 8am; 11pm /midnight till 8am. Clinic shifts may require participating doctors to do home visiting as well when not busy in the clinic.
As a medical deputising service, even with AGPAL accreditation, Chevron After Hours Medical Service does not receive and is not eligible to receive any PIP payments from Medicare Australia in spite of covering all after hours times and being a totally computerised medical service. Participating doctors work in association with Chevron After Hours Medical Service and all services necessary for conducting medical practice are provided by Locum Services Gold Coast PL. Locum Services operates the clinics which are well equipped and employs all medical receptionists who are in attendance during the opening hours of all of the Clinics. None of the clinics are open for patients during normal business hours. The Southport after hours clinic is also our main office and is attended by staff 24 hours a day everyday of the year. Revenue for Locum Services to operate the service is mainly derived by billing doctors who work in the Service. A proportion of operating revenue is derived from charging local general practices to cover their patients when the practices are closed. Doctors who work in the service remain self-employed contractors and must have an ABN. They bill patients directly and funds are deposited into an account, which is operated by Locum Services. After fees are paid to Locum Services, the balance or net income for a working week is electronically deposited to the doctor’s account between the Monday and Wednesday of the following week. All doctors receive Group A1 GP Medicare fees – non-VR doctors can be enrolled in the Approved Medical Deputising Service Program and the A1 for OMPs in an MDS Program. For Clinic patients, non-VR doctors must be supervised and retain 55% of fees till enrolled to do the FRACGP examination. When enrolled, they retain 57% of fees and when successful in the FRACGP examination, 60% of fees. For home visiting 75% of fees are retained.
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