I can do MURs, and had done over 100 of them in the 1st year of the new contract when I was employed by a company. Now I am a locum and have done 7 MURs in my 1st year of being self-employed. Too many or too little?
Some arguments against MURs as a locum:
- If I happen to come across a patient who I feel could genuinely benefit from an MUR, 98% of the time, I can't do it due to a queue of prescriptions, and I may not be back at the pharmacy on the day the patient can return.
- The pharmacy managers have incentive schemes. I don't.
- The pharmacy managers should know their patients better, hence better rapport, therefore, easier to get a patient into the consulting room.
- Different companys have varying formats to log MURs, making it more time consuming for a locum who has to navigate the form/computer.
- Does a patient feel comfortable having a pharmacist they may have never seen before, telling them how they may be taking their medicines incorrectly?
- Should a locum feel pressured to do an MUR when a company is targeting thyroid patients or other, seemingly pointless patients, just because the company is not making enough money?
- Would a locum GP enter a surgery and give patients full medicine reviews? If they did, would they do it for free?
On the flip side, locums (myself included) would probably enjoy some more clinical input in their everyday working lives, but not for free, and certainly not solely to acheive company targets.
Have any other locums got anything to say about this? Are there locums who go out and do MURs for different companys, and if so, how are they received by the patients, doctors and pharmacy managers?
