How should I recruit new GPs for my private GP service?

Define the role first

The GPs you recruit will reflect on you and your service, so be clear about what you need before you advertise:

• Sessions and flexibility. Regular sessions, occasional cover, evenings or weekends, remote or face to face.
• Clinical scope. General consultations, medicals, screening, procedures, women's health or other interests.
• Skills for private practice. Longer consultations, clear communication about fees and referrals, writing to NHS GPs, and managing expectations. See what makes a good private GP.
• Engagement model. Employed salaried GP, or self-employed sessional GP invoicing for sessions.

Employment status decides the GP's rights and your tax duties, and it depends on the reality of the arrangement, not the label. Use HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool and take advice on the contract. See employment law when hiring staff.

Where to find GPs

• Personal recommendation. Often the best route. Colleagues can tell you about a GP's clinical standards and reliability.
• Local sessional GP groups and LMCs. The CQC notes that most GP locums are freelance and find work through local knowledge and contacts, including LMCs and local sessional GP groups.
• Locum agencies and chambers. Faster, but at a cost. See the section on agencies below.
• Medical job boards and professional networking sites.
• Professional networks for independent doctors, such as the IDrF. See the IDF and keeping in touch with peers.
• Your own website and patients. A careers page costs nothing.

Write an honest advert. Say what the sessions are, the pay or rate, the support available and what the practice is like. Keep the wording free of anything that could discriminate under the Equality Act 2010.

Selection

Interview with a colleague if you can. Use clinical scenarios drawn from private practice, such as a patient asking for a test you don't think is indicated, or a result that needs an urgent NHS referral. Assess how the GP communicates, documents and safety-nets as well as what they know. For your first GP hires, a paid trial session with case review is useful.

Checks before a GP sees patients

In England, CQC regulation 19 requires robust recruitment procedures, and the CQC is clear that it applies to temporary and self-employed doctors as well as employees. For each GP, the Schedule 3 information must be available:

• proof of identity including a recent photograph
• an enhanced DBS check with the relevant barred list. See DBS checks.
• satisfactory evidence of conduct in previous health or care work, usually references
• evidence of relevant qualifications
• a full employment history with an explanation of any gaps
• information about any health condition relevant to the role, after reasonable adjustments.

For a GP, also check and record:

• GMC registration and licence to practise, and entry on the GP Register, using the GMC's online register
• revalidation: their designated body and responsible officer, and when they last had an appraisal. See appraisal and revalidation.
• indemnity covering the private work they will do for you. The state-backed Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice covers NHS primary medical services, not private work. See indemnity for private work.
• right to work in the UK, if you are employing them
• immunisation status. See staff immunisations.

Keep all of this in a personnel file you can show an inspector. If a check raises a concern and you still appoint, record your reasons.

Using an agency

Locum agencies are regulated as employment businesses and must check that a locum is suitable for the role. The CQC says you must still be assured that all appropriate checks have been done, by you or the agency, and that the Schedule 3 information can be made available. Agree how you will see the documents before the first session.

Onboarding

1. Induction pack. Your services and prices, systems, referral routes, results handling, prescribing arrangements, safeguarding contacts, emergency procedures and key policies.
2. System access. Individual logins for the record system and any prescribing service, never shared ones.
3. Supervised start. Shorter lists at first, and a named colleague for questions.
4. Early review. Review a sample of consultation notes and letters after the first few sessions, then as part of regular audit. See clinical audit.
5. Ongoing support. Include the GP in significant event reviews, meetings and feedback. See managing performance and appraisals.

Recruiting nurses and admin staff

The same principles apply. Write a clear job description, advertise through job boards, local networks and your own website, and run the same regulation 19 checks. For nurses, check the NMC register and their revalidation date. For healthcare assistants, assess competence before they work unsupervised. Decide case by case whether reception and admin roles need a DBS check, and record your reasoning. See staff for a private GP service.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Regulation 19 and Schedule 3 are CQC rules for England. Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and RQIA set their own requirements for recruitment checks, so check their guidance. GMC registration, licensing and revalidation work the same way across the UK.