Locum work is particularly important in rural and remote areas, and areas affected by staff shortages. In the past, Senior Doctors would often choose locum employment as a way of ‘easing into retirement’. However, nowadays, doctors of all ages and stages of their career are choosing to work in locum employment and find it provides many benefits including:

• flexibility and work-life balance

• financial incentives

• variety and travel

• skill development and specialisation

• exposure to different healthcare settings

General Practitioners (GPs) provide general and family medical services to people of all ages and stages in life. They have broad medical knowledge and can consult with patients about acute and chronic health conditions. They coordinate patient care with other medical specialists and healthcare providers. They work in primary care settings, including community and private General Practices, GP surgeries, hospitals, and rural health and outreach settings. To become a GP, registered doctors can apply to undertake GP Specialty Training (GPST), which takes a minimum of 3 years to complete, and leads to registration with the RCGP, a CCT and entry onto the GMC GP Register. GPs work autonomously and are often responsible for training junior staff and registrars, leading multidisciplinary teams, and running a GP business. Some GP doctors have Special Interest accreditation, whereby they can practice as a generalist in more clinical settings and/or have extended scopes of practice in a specialty area of medicine.