Thank you to all that replied to this survey. The overall impression was that nationally there are large variations.

We had 115 replies, 6 from General Practitioners, 42 from Registrars and 67 from fellows. 54 were contractors, 61 employees. It was anonymous and we do rely on the honesty and maths of responders. Consequently some educated guesses as to the meaning of some answers had to be made.

To provide a valid comparison salaried Doctors were converted to an hourly rate, taking into account their hours, base salary, 4 weeks annual leave, stated CME leave, stated CME Allowance, Kiwisaver, ACC levy, and assuming employer paying Indemnity Insurance, College membership and MCNZ fees pro rata.

The question relating to “After Hours” naturally covered a number of areas (evening, night, weekend, statutory holiday). Where specified the Statutory Holiday payments/time in lieu were excluded.

 

Work Site

Results here were mixed but on a small sample Urgent Care Doctors and GPs working in smaller town EDs and Urgent Care Clinics were paid more than those in larger centres, possibly reflecting recruitment challenges.

General Practitioners working in Urgent Care

Hourly rate varied between $100 and $170  per hour, with a mean of $118. From the limited sample it appears that those working in Emergency Departments are paid most, followed by those in 24 hour clinics followed by those in reduced hours clinics.

After hours loading of  15 – 55% was paid to those in ED and 24 hour clinics but not those in reduced hours clinics.

Urgent Care Registrars

Base hourly rate varied $70 to $170 per hour with a mean of $109.60. Contracted Doctors in general had higher hourly rates. In terms of type of clinic those in extended hours General Practices were on average paid less.

After hours loading averaged about 20%.

Urgent Care Fellows without Management Role

For those Urgent Care Fellows not in a management role equivalent hourly rate varied between $86 and 170 per hour with an average of $121 per hour. After hours rates averaged $137 but it is notable that those on higher base rates tended to have a flat rate across their work hours.

In general contracted Doctors had higher hourly rates than employees ($127 vs $109/hr) and those in small towns received slightly ($5 per hour) more than those in larger and metroplolitan centres.

Clinic Medical Director

Those who described their role as Medical Director averaged $145/ hour base rate (range $71 to $249) , few had after hours loading so the average for this was $155. On the limited number of responses (17) there did not appear to be a trend across the different sized population centres. Clinical directors of extended hours General Practices appear to be paid significantly more than 24 hour or reduced hour Urgent Care Clinics but the sample size was again, small. Contractors were significantly better paid than Employees ($164 vs $134 per hour equivalent).

CME Leave and Allowances

As expected very few contractors (3) had CME allowances or leave in their contract although those that did reported complete freedom to chose their CME.

Employees mostly (2/3rds) had annual CME leave and allowance although several (7/61) were unsure of their allowance or limit. The range was $16000 (pro rata) for Emegency Department employees down as low as $500 for others. The average CME leave allowance where present and known was 8.5 days pro rata and the monetary allowance $3800.

In using CME leave/allowance about 60% said they had freedom to choose their CME, 20% were restricted to approval from the clinic and around 20% had only CME that met clinic needs. However the ambiguity of these categories and their actual operation may make these results misleading.