Post of Associate General Practitioner at Arrochar Surgery
There is a vacancy for an Associate GP at Arrochar Surgery from 01/11/2013.
What is an Associate GP ?
The Associate Scheme started in about 1990 to assist and provide regular time off for single
handed rural practitioners. Each single handed practice can employ a half time associate. This
is a salaried post funded by the Health Board. The present associate is going to job share the
principle post after being an associate for the last 3 years. The work pattern is one full week
of work every third week. Dr Troup and Dr Berardelli who will be job sharing partners will
work the other 2 weeks of the 3 week cycle.
Arrochar Practice.
The surgery is of reasonable size. It is dispensing, uses Vision & Docman. It has a full time
practice nurse, a part time practice nurse, and 4 part time administration staff who all also
assist with dispensing and 2 have a dispenser qualification. Community staff are based at
Garelochhead and Kilcreggan mainly but cover the Lochside practices as one team [That is
Garelochhead, Kilcreggan and Arrochar].
Practice population is 1050. The population is mainly near the shores of east and north Loch
Lomond, north Loch Long and north Loch Fyne, but 80% of the population are in the villages
of Tarbet and Arrochar which are 2 miles apart on Loch Lomond and Loch Long
respectively. Many of the patients are staff in the tourist industry and there are a high number
of temporary residents seen.
The nearest towns are Helensburgh [17 miles], Alexandria [20 miles], Dumbarton [24 miles],
Glasgow [40 miles] to the south. The A82 is good quality up to Tarbet and Glagow can easily
be reached within an hour.
The nearest hospital is the Vale of Leven Hospital [VOL] in Alexandria. There are some
outpatient clinics in Helensburgh and Dumbarton. Some specialist appointments are at
Glasgow and Paisley hospitals. The Vale of Leven Hospital has most non acute hospital
services, laboratory, X-ray. Most specialties have out patient clinics in the area. The A&E is
now a Minor Injury Unit. It has a medical assessment unit, but no ITU so a triage system
means some medical emergencies go the Royal Alexandria Hospital [RAH] in Paisley which
also has A&E. A triage system in the VOL hospital also picks up some patients who are
deteriorating and need transfer to the RAH. Some non acute surgery is done at the VOL but
acute surgery also goes to the RAH. Arrochar has an ambulance station.
Out of hours the practice is covered from the Lomond Primary Care Emergency Centre based
at the VOL hospital.
Description of Associate GP conditions of work.
The Health Board allowance for the post is £39732.36 for the half time post [includes
employers national insurance and superannuation]. As a half time post the associate is
therefore employed to do 26 weeks but only actually works for 17 so has 9 weeks off as leave
public holidays and study leave. 1 week equals 4 days of 8am to 6pm and one of 8am to
12noon as Lochgoilhead covers a half day from 12 noon on a Wednesday and vice versa on a
Thursday. Every 3rd Thursday involves some extension for the practice’s extended hours
commitment. The associate does all normal GP work on days of work.
Details of contact
Dr David F Troup and Dr Chiara Berardelli, The Arrochar Surgery, Kirkfield Place,
Arrochar, Dunbartonshire, G83 7AE, Tel 08444772520, e-mail, dtroup@nhs.net or
dftroup@hotmail.com. Informal discussions about the post with Dr Troup or the present
associate, Dr Berardelli are welcome, but if applying apply with CV to Dr Troup and Dr
Berardelli.