>In Sweden in particular Doctors are more keen to be contractors and hire themselves out to hospitals and offices, mostly due to the fact that Vardcentralen has limits for how much it will pay permanent staff Doctors.
This is much the same in the UK.
Hospitals struggle to fill rota gaps, so offer locum shifts at sometimes 2-3x the normal rate to fill gaps at short notice.
However staffing is so tight now, one can sustain a workweek solely on locum shifts.
Most doctors at junior level have taken notice, and many (more then half afaik) defer entering specialty training after their first two years to spend a year (or three!) solely filling these shifts.
At the cost of job progression and workplace continuity, you're getting paid way more for the same work, but with way more shift flexibility and less CPD paperwork.
Sounds pretty good to me!
Are docs greedy? Hard to say.
If locum wages are what fills rota gaps, is that the market dictating the true price of medical labour?
The feeling among a lot of my friends is that if regular and locum wages met in the middle, it might help things.
Can't really account for that flexibility of what is essentially taskrabbit for doctors though.
This is much the same in the UK. Hospitals struggle to fill rota gaps, so offer locum shifts at sometimes 2-3x the normal rate to fill gaps at short notice.
However staffing is so tight now, one can sustain a workweek solely on locum shifts.
Most doctors at junior level have taken notice, and many (more then half afaik) defer entering specialty training after their first two years to spend a year (or three!) solely filling these shifts.
At the cost of job progression and workplace continuity, you're getting paid way more for the same work, but with way more shift flexibility and less CPD paperwork.
Sounds pretty good to me!
Are docs greedy? Hard to say. If locum wages are what fills rota gaps, is that the market dictating the true price of medical labour?
The feeling among a lot of my friends is that if regular and locum wages met in the middle, it might help things. Can't really account for that flexibility of what is essentially taskrabbit for doctors though.