A fortnight without a GP costs you the panel.
A practice that cannot staff a session loses more than the session. Patients book elsewhere and most do not come back, so continuity is what cover is really protecting. Run one bank across your practices rather than one per site.
Three things a group can do that a single practice cannot.
Each links deeper rather than explaining itself here.
The relationship stops being trapped at one site
A GP who covered a session at one of your practices already knows your software, your billing arrangements and your patient expectations. Held at group level, that relationship is available to every other site instead of to one.
When a site needs a GP, not a locum
Most groups arrive with a vacancy rather than a roster gap. Our team runs the search directly: the role, the location, what support is realistic, with no requirement to book cover first and no share of billings.
Cover that protects the panel
A practice without a GP for a fortnight loses patients who book elsewhere and largely stay there. Cover is not about the sessions, it is about whether the panel survives the fortnight.
What you are reaching into.
What it looks like when it works.
- 1
A practice is going to be short
Leave, resignation or a registrar finishing. The sessions go to the group bank before they go anywhere else.
- 2
A GP who knows another of your sites answers
Same software, same arrangements, no induction from scratch, and credentials already current because they were held at group level.
- 3
The practice keeps its own terms
Service fee, billing mix and rate stay between that practice and that GP. The bank is shared; the arrangements are not.
- 4
And if it is really a vacancy, we say so
Cover buys time. When the honest answer is that the site needs its own GP, our team runs that search rather than selling you another fortnight.
Above the practices, not inside them.
Each site keeps its own software, its own billing and its own relationship with its patients. What sits above is the list of GPs the group can reach and the evidence that their registration and indemnity are current.
GP group staffing, answered.
How do GP groups cover sessions across multiple practices?
By running one bank at group level rather than one list per site. A GP who has worked any of your practices already knows your software, your billing arrangements and your patient expectations, and can be reached for any other site. That is the value a single practice structurally cannot create: the relationship built at one location becomes available to the next.
What does it actually cost when a practice cannot fill a session?
More than the session. A practice without a GP for a fortnight does not lose a fortnight of billings, it loses patients who book elsewhere and largely stay there. The damage is to the patient panel, which is slow to rebuild and does not appear in the week's numbers, which is why groups under-react to it.
Do you recruit permanent GPs as well as locum cover?
Yes, and most groups come to us for a vacancy before they come for cover. You do not have to arrange a locum placement first. Our team discusses the role, the location and the support available, and runs the search directly.
How are billing arrangements and service fees handled?
They stay entirely yours. Service fee percentage, mixed billing, bulk billing. Those are terms between the practice and the GP, as they already are. StatDoctor does not sit in the billing relationship and takes no percentage of it.
Can you help with registrars and supervision?
We can reach both registrars and supervisors, but be aware that supervision capacity, not registrar numbers, is usually the real constraint on a training practice. Whether a site can take a registrar remains an accreditation question between you and your RTO, and no platform changes that.
What about rural and outer-metro practices?
That is where the shortage is sharpest and where a group bank matters most, because the pool of GPs willing to travel is smaller and therefore worth keeping. We can widen who sees the role. We cannot change where the practice is, and the rate and the notice do more work than any platform at that distance.
StatDoctor is free for doctors and takes no percentage of your billings. Groups pay for StatHospital; pricing follows how many practices and which parts of the platform you use. No charge for an initial conversation and no obligation after one.
Which site is hardest to staff?
Start with the practice that keeps going short and what you currently do about it. That tells both of us quickly whether we can help.