Dr Alf Phillips on locuming with your family

Dr Alf Phillips is an Orthopaedic Surgeon based on the Gold Coast. He locums with Medrecruit around his full-time role.

In 2022, we caught up with him to learn why he chose to locum and what he has planned for 2023.

Can you tell me about yourself and why you became a doctor?

I have been a doctor for 11 years now. I got into medicine after doing a science degree in Brisbane, and then I studied medicine on the Gold Coast.

How did you get involved with Medrecruit?

I have been locuming with Medrecruit for the last six months. I got involved through word of mouth because I heard good things about Medrecruit, a company that looks after doctors and places them in appropriate positions. I have been doing 2-7 day locums on the Mid-North Coast and Northern NSW over the last six months as an Orthopaedic Surgeon.

How does Medrecruit support you?

I guess they're just good at problem-solving and troubleshooting issues when you are working at a hospital that you haven't worked at before. They're good at finding the work and then communicating well to let me know when jobs become available and if they would be the right match. They are also good at negotiating the reimbursement you get from the hospitals and other things like transport to and from the locums. The Solutions Specialists take care of everything I just basically show up, pick up the keys to my accommodation, and start working. It's really easy.

There's no pressure to take any locum work. The team at Medrecruit understands that I've got essentially full-time work within the public sector of Queensland. If I say I am unavailable, they don't harass me; they leave me, and then when I let them know I am available, they will find appropriate work for me, which has been great.

What are your goals for 2023?

My goals for 2023 are to find work/life balance through regular work and locum work, where I can bring my family with me and we have what we call a "working holiday." A "working holiday" is when my family comes along, I do a bit of locum work, and then we get some nice time off together.

The reimbursement from locum work is generally really good so I am working towards saving for an overseas fellowship, which I am going on with my family next year in Canada for 12 months in July next year. That is essentially an unpaid job so I am locuming for the first half of 2023 to basically subsidise that time away in Canada.

Being a locum with Medrecruit has enabled me to find really interesting and challenging work where I can do my job and look after my patients but also have a work-life balance where my family can come along with me while enabling us to save for a year overseas next year.