Five recommendations for hospitals to make sure they make the most of the doctors who have returned to the GMC registry during the pandemic.
28,000 consultants, GPs, staff and associate specialist (SAS) doctors, trainees and medical academics have made themselves available in response to COVID-19. But only 14% of them are currently working, so many more could be helping, particularly with the rising backlog of elective work.
In this statement, the RCP recommends that hospitals
- contact people who have recently retired
- ask them what they are willing and able to do
- fully include and value returners as part of the team
- have a trial period
- provide an induction.
These may seem obvious, but when we are busy the basics are often forgotten about. There is more detail in the statement below, and you may also be interested to explore Working flexibly: A toolkit and Later careers: Stemming the drain of expertise and skills from the profession.