The doctor will… drive you now? Newly qualified GP working for Uber because they couldn’t get a job (even though you’ve been waiting weeks for an appointment!)

A GP is working as an Uber driver after failing to find a job as a GP despite surgeries leaving patients waiting weeks for an appointment.

The doctor has a degree in British medicine and qualified as a GP two years ago, but has struggled to find work as a locum or employed GP.

It’s understood they considered working in a hospital, but decided they could make as much money driving passengers as they did treating patients – with less stress, less risk and more control over working hours.

A colleague told GP Online that the GP had been working as a taxi driver in the Midlands for the past two or three months and that they were ‘unsure whether they would return to clinical practice’.

It comes amid increasing reports that jobs for general practice doctors have dried up as surgeries cannot afford to employ them and receptionists are encouraging patients to visit other healthcare workers, who are cheaper to employ.

It’s understood the GP considered working in a hospital but decided they could make as much money riding passengers as treating patients – with less stress, less risk and more control over working hours

The Mail today reported how patients with cancer symptoms are delaying seeking care due to the difficulties they face in making GP appointments.

Practices have received £1.4 billion in ring-fenced funding that can be spent on hiring more staff such as pharmacists, junior doctors and paramedics – but not GPs or nurses.

The funding, known as the Additional Roles Reimbursement Program (ARRS), has brought more than 30,000 staff into general practice, but doctors claim it has also led to higher-priced doctors being excluded.

At least one practice in Surrey has announced it will make a number of GPs redundant due to ‘new ways of working’ that allow patients to see members of the ‘wider team’.

Only 46 percent of GP appointments in England were with a GP in January, the last month for which official NHS statistics are available.

In addition, patients had to wait more than a week for more than a quarter (27.9 percent) of all appointments.

GPs earn on average £118,100 a year, while those who have their own practice typically earn £153,400, according to NHS Digital.

The GP who knows the Uber driver said: ‘When we went to GP training, stability was the main selling point.

‘I have colleagues who work in hospitals and they have often moved across the country, but that is what they signed up for.

‘GPs were told that where you train, that is usually where you will also work. It seems like the rug has been swept out from under us.

‘GPs who have just completed their training are now having a hard time. My heart goes out to them. They’re really stuck.

‘There are plenty of GPs, but practices have their hands tied with ARRS funding.’

A GPonline survey earlier this year found that more than half of GPs had struggled to find work in the past 12 months, with many seeing their income fall.

Doctors have also told the site that locums desperate for work are cold-calling GP practices and offering to work at rates ‘last seen years ago’.

Meanwhile, another GP who couldn’t find work was reportedly forced to turn to a food bank for support.

The British Medical Association and the Doctors Association UK have linked the shortage of GP jobs at ARRS.

Dr. Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the BMA’s GP committee, said a GP driving a taxi for a living is ‘extraordinary’.

She said ARRS staff had helped deliver 50 million extra GP appointments promised by the government – ​​but that rather than improving patient outcomes, “we have evidence that it is increasing health inequalities indicators and raising concerns of patients that they have to see several people’ before they actually arrive at a diagnosis.’

She added: ‘From our perspective we are hearing about GPs facing unemployment and underemployment, newly qualified GPs having to do extra work, examples given to me by some practice managers in Manchester during Uber drivers’ weekend .

‘This is the reality. Exceptional. And why wouldn’t you want to use the existing earmarked budgets of the Treasury to employ qualified GPs, for which the taxpayer has invested billions of pounds in training? This doesn’t make sense.’

The BMA has previously said that thousands of GPs are currently ‘underemployed’.

Dr. Steve Taylor, GP spokesperson at DAUK, said there is increasing evidence that GPs are struggling to find work.

He said: ‘There are increasing reports that doctors are not getting the work they want.

‘I recently did a small survey and at least 50 per cent of GPs were having difficulty getting the work they wanted.

“Some were locums who didn’t get as much work as they wanted, some were partners who didn’t get the hours they wanted, and some were paid. In summary, it is a lack of funding within core GP services.’

He said GPs were increasingly swapping roles outside general practice – in urgent treatment centers and emergency departments. ‘It is ridiculous. Last year I received emails every day offering locum work, but I haven’t had a single email in four months.’