When you can work while exploring the country, why wouldn’t you?
Being too young to fully retire, and with too much experience not to share it, Jim Corbett stepped from 30 years of running a practice into the world of locuming.
Since then, Jim and his wife Petra have enjoyed discovering every corner of Aotearoa.
“We’ve been to the top of the North Island, bottom of the South Island, Great Barrier Island, Waiheke, we’ve been all over. It’s an opportunity to see the country and, to be honest, it feels like a paid holiday.”
Freedom to work their way
Jim says they’re able to organise locum placements based on where they want to go and what they want to do. These days, Jim prefers to work in three day blocks if he can, or four at the most. He can put everything into patient care, provide some continuity, then hand patients back to their usual GP.
Most of the time he will opt not to do after hours or on call, but such is the flexibility of locum work that each placement comes with its own negotiable parameters.
“There are 1001 things to pay attention to when you run your own practice: keeping the building going, looking after the staff; you’ve got your eyes and hands on pretty much everything and you feel a huge responsibility to your patients.”
After three decades in one place, Jim and Petra enjoy the freedom of seeing the rest of New Zealand. “It’s a wide country, with lots of fascinating places; we see the beauty of the towns and the people too. The clinic staff are welcoming, and I feel valued. It’s a great feeling when you’re in a new job setting.”
Still learning, still growing, still exploring
Jim says Medicine is the same everywhere but he enjoys going into other practices and seeing how they do things, how they deal with patients who present with different issues. As a solo GP for so long, he only did things his way. Now he sees there are other ways so is continuing to learn.
Discovering a community of other locum doctors or “kindred spirits” is one of the other advantages. It’s a popular way of working and he often follows or precedes other doctors on the locum circuit.
The Good Together Difference
A combination of long standing connections, repeat placements and working closely with Good Together mean Jim and Petra can fill their calendar with locum experiences from Kaitaia to Bluff.
Having handled the scheduling for Jim for the past 8 years, Petra says “Good Together wins hands down in terms of ease of liaising and ongoing support.”
For Jim, Good Together stands out for their approachability, friendliness, the personal connection and community.
The annual getaway – this year’s Timber Trail – is a case in point. Locum doctors, newly arrived IMGs and the Good Together team shared tales from the trail, professional experiences, and learning, at one of Aotearoa’s many hidden gems. Like any true Kiwi familiar with the saying ‘Been there, done that, got the t-shirt’, Jim still wears the T-shirt!
