Professional Expenses Plan

Could you continue to cover the fixed costs of your practice, or firm, or the costs of paying someone to carry out your day-to-day duties, if you unexpectedly suffered an illness or had an injury that prevented you from practicing as a doctor, dentist or lawyer?

Even if you are a GP, and are able to get reimbursed for the locum costs from the NHS, the payment is unlikely to cover the costs in full, leaving your business with a significant bill that has to be paid.

A Professional Expenses Plan from Wesleyan provides you with an income to help your practice or firm should you become ill or injured that prevents you from working. It could help safeguard you and your practice or firm against unexpected costs so you have one less thing to worry about, leaving you to focus on your recovery.

An expenses plan will continue to support you until you are well enough to return to work, or until you reach the selected plan end age.

Visit our Income Protection Digital Centre for useful articles, case studies and calculators.

NHS improvements to GP contracts don't fully address the cost of locum cover

In early February, NHS England announced a number of changes to GP contracts, one of which is to guarantee that they will reimburse the cost of hiring a locum to cover a GP's sickness absence.

Since then, the NHS in Scotland and Wales have followed suit.  For Northern Ireland, the previous discretionary system remains in place for the time being.

From 1 April, 2017, they will pay up to £1,734.18 per week for the first 26 weeks of absence (except for the first two weeks), reducing after 26 weeks to 50% of whatever payment was agreed for the first 26 weeks, capped at £867.09.

The good news is that at least part of the cost of hiring a locum will now be met by the NHS - but only part of it.

Going forward, you may not require as much cover under your Locum Insurance policy to meet your liability to provide a locum in respect of GP absence.

According to the BMA, this change "... should reduce locum insurance cover expenses, and enable practices to offer better sickness absence terms to salaried GPs."

Who covers the shortfall?

GPs will still usually be responsible for covering the shortfall. Depending on the resources available among colleagues to help fill the gap, and taking into account local rates for hiring a locum, there is likely to be a significant financial liability that still needs to be met.

Typically, the cost of covering eight sessions per week is around £2,800*, but, with regional variations, can be as much as £3,600. Sometimes even more.

However, it does not change the potential need to cover salaried GPs and other practice staff for sick pay and for other associated costs involved in paying for replacement staff, or extra hours worked by colleagues, in the event of their sickness absence.

The reduction in locum insurance costs may in fact enable you to broaden the cover you are able to provide for the practice, without increasing your premium.

If you are considering amending or cancelling an existing policy with us in light of these changes, we recommend that you take advice before doing so.

Please contact your Wesleyan Financial Consultant or contact us direct by using one of the methods above.

*Medeconomics Survey of GP Locum earnings UK, October 2016

Please use the link to the Key Features Document of the Professional Expenses Plan for important information about this product.

• Wesleyan Professional Expenses Plan Key Features Document (pdf)

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