We warmly welcome all Practice Managers and Practice Principals to the General Practice Soapbox and invite you to go ahead and advertise any GP vacancies that you have.
The purpose of your advertisement is to present your surgery in its best possible light but also to provide any prospective GPs with some critical information about your surgery to help them quickly assess whether your practice meets their needs.
Some of the important details that a doctor would like to know include the following:
1. Name of your surgery (so they can Google your website)
2. Location of your surgery (town or suburb and region)
3. Type of vacancy you have on offer (ie. Permanent or locum)
4. Proposed start date (start and finish dates for a locum)
5. Are you Private or bulk billing?
6. Patient demand – are you busy or quiet?
7. How many doctors you currently have?
8. How long has the surgery been established?
9. Where your surgery is situated in your local neighborhood (ie. Shopping centre)
10. How would you describe your surgery? (ie. modern, traditional, federation, suburban house etc.)
11. Describe the range of clinical services you offer (ie. Skin cancer, Cosmetic, Occ Health, Diving)
12. What other onsite services do you offer? (ie. Allied health, pathology, pharmacy)
13. How well serviced is your area with diagnostic, allied health & specialist services?
14. What is the reason for your vacancy?
15. What type of doctor will the new GP be replacing? (ie male/female, clinical interests?)
16. Are you looking for any particular clinical skills?
17. What remuneration package are you offering? (percentage and hourly rate)
18. Be sure to include your contact details.
Whilst this may seem like a long list, it can all be neatly summarised in an ad like the following example.
Premium Care Medical Centre in the beachside town of Byron Bay in Northern NSW have a vacancy for a permanent GP with an immediate start.
We are a very busy, 5 doctor, private billing practice, that has been established for over 15 years in Bay Street, just behind the Byron Surf Club and in the heart of Byron Bay’s tourist shopping strip. Our spacious and modern medical centre offers a broad range of traditional family medical services as well as onsite allied health, pathology and pharmacy. A full range of specialist, allied health and imaging services are available within 3km of our practice.
Our vacancy has arisen as a result of the pending retirement of one of our long-term female GPs so a ready-made patient base will be waiting for an incoming doctor with a broad range of clinical skills and an interest in women’s health. We can offer remuneration of 70% of billings plus an hourly guarantee for the first 2 months.
For any inquiries please contact our practice principal Dr Trevor Steel on the following number.
As you can see from the information in the above advertisement a GP can get a broad idea of your location, how well established you are, the type of patients they can expect to see and even derive an estimate of their earning capacity.
In terms of presentation of your ad on Facebook, here are a few suggestions to make your ad more effective.
1. Include a photograph of your surgery if possible
2. In your title and first paragraph, be sure to include the following
a. Name of your surgery
b. Location of your surgery (ie town or suburb)
c. Specify whether you are looking for a locum or perm
d. If a locum specify locum dates.
Keep in mind that the image, title and first sentence are all that doctors will see as they scroll through our group feed. Including the most important details in your intro will allow them to decide whether your surgery is in their area or of interest to them.
Please go ahead and post your ad on our Facebook group and we wish you the best of luck in finding a suitable GP.
