Locum fees should be capped amid ‘excruciating’ workforce crisis, says next ACRRM president
Dr Rod Martin says centralised credentialling would also help address variability in locums' skillsets.
“While we continue to have locums paid as handsomely as they are, we will continue to have excruciating workforce shortages.”
Dr Rod Martin, ACRRM’s president-elect, told a state parliamentary inquiry last year that the fees locums were able to charge “explain why we can’t attract more regular doctors”.
Simply, doctors were earning far more doing the same job as locums — $4000 a day in some examples — than they were ever likely to do as permanent doctors.
“The sting in the tail for having very well-paid locums is that people don’t want to get into a training program because they can be a locum for 5-10 years and pay off their mortgage,” Dr Martin said last November.
