Oxford Deanery Guidance on the Retainer Scheme

Important Notice - whenever there are any changes in your arrangements once on the retainer scheme, whether it is to do with yourself or the practice then you must complete a new form.  Please contact Cara Evans for further information.

This scheme is for doctors who have well founded personal reasons for wanting to work in a lesser capacity in general practice for a set period of time.  The maximum amount of time allowed on the scheme is five years.

This page is intended to give you information about how the Retainer Scheme will be applied in the Oxford Deanery.  It should be read in conjunction with NHS Executive Health Service Circular HSC1999/004 (GP Retainer Scheme) and the General Practitioners Committee Guidance to GP Retainees.

View Oxford Deanery Guidance on the GP Retainer Scheme

View PDF version of NHS Executive Guidelines GP Retainer Scheme 1999

View PDF version of BMA model contract for GP Retainer Scheme 2005

View PDF version of GPC Focus on salaried GPs, Guidance for GPs

Downloads:

• OXR1 - Application for a doctor to join the Retainer Scheme
• OXR4 - Application for a practice to employ a doctor under the Retainer Scheme

Applicants and practices should apply to the GP Office using forms OXR1 and OXR4.  Dr Honor Merriman, the course organiser with responsibility for this scheme, is happy to answer queries: honor merriman

To join the Retainer Scheme a doctor will need to have a declared intention and explicit plan to return to General Practice.

A doctor wishing to join the Retainer Scheme will need to apply to the Director of Postgraduate General Practice Education at The Triangle, Roosevelt Drive, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7XP for approval.  Similarly, practices who wish to employ a doctor on the retainer scheme will need to apply for approval.  The criteria against which practices will be assessed for approval can be accessed here.

Each year the doctor on the Retainer Scheme will be asked whether they wish to remain on the Retainer Scheme (within the time limits contained in the HSC).  They will be asked to provide a brief report on the practice, a description of their educational activities in the previous year, their educational plan for the coming year, and their current career plans. 

Practices will be approved for a period of up to a maximum of 5 years.  They will then be asked if they wish to reapply and be reassessed.

Practices should only employ doctors on the retainer scheme once they are sure both that the practice has been approved and that the doctor has been approved.

2 Applications after 1st January 1999

Doctors applying to join the retainer scheme after 1st January 1999 will be asked to complete application form OXR1.  This will ask for background information.  In addition it will ask the doctor to describe their plans for their career, to outline the proposed sessional commitment, and to provide information on any other regular sessional commitments in addition to the Retainer Scheme.

Practices wishing to be approved under the Retainer Scheme will be asked to complete form OXR4.  In this form they will be asked to clarify the form of contract that will be used, the name of the educational and clinical supervisors, the way in which educational sessions are to be arranged, the extent to which the Oxford Deanery Criteria for Practices approved under the Retainer Scheme are met, and a proposed timetable. 

Practices that have been approved as training practices should not require additional visits.  Provided sufficient information is given on the application form, training practices will usually be notified of the outcome within two weeks of their application.

Practices not so approved will be visited.  The visiting team will usually consist of an Associate Adviser in General Practice and a GP Tutor.  The doctor leading the team will prepare a report following the visit, which will be sent to the practice.  The application form and visit report will be considered by a Committee consisting of the Director of Postgraduate General Practice Education or his/her Deputy, a GP Tutor, an LMC Representative, a doctor who is a member of the Retainer Scheme, and the doctor who led the team visiting the practice.    The practice will be notified of the outcome of their application as soon as possible, usually within one month of the approval visit. 

If an individual applicant or a practice is not approved they will be entitled to lodge an appeal - the appeal process is described  here.

3 Appeals Procedure

Doctors or practices who are not approved to join the retainers scheme will have the right of appeal.  The details are listed here.

5 Extensions of Approval

Doctors who wish to remain on the retainer scheme beyond the usual period of five years will be asked to describe in detail the reasons for doing so.

Each application will be judged on its merits, but the most important criteria which will be used in this judgement are explained here.

6 Educational Activities

The Health Service Circular (HSC1999/004) clarifies that educational sessions would usually be expected to be treated in the same way as service sessions in terms of reimbursement to the practice and payment by the practice to the doctor on the Retainer Scheme.

In the Oxford Deanery it is hoped that doctors on the Retainer Scheme will be able to undertake a fairly substantial part of their education within the practices in which they are working.  In addition, local GP Tutors have arrangements whereby doctors working on the Retainer Scheme can attend educational activities at their local Postgraduate Centres free of educational charges (please note they will still be charged subsistence costs).