[Tony Schofield]

Oh the certainty of youth!

Remember that the tax man doesn't pay for your petrol. If you are on 40% tax and you pay £5 a gallon for petrol, you will still pay £5 for that gallon. However your tax bill will be reduced by £2. You still have to pay for the petrol though!

It is nigh on impossible to have a relationship with patients and surgeries unless you are the regular locum working more than a couple of days a week. Unless I am mistaken the inland revenue could then challenge your self employed status.

I remember the frustration I felt when someone asked to speak to the pharmacist but on seeing I wasn't the regular pharmacist just said they would come back the following day.

Why on earth do you aspire to be a full time locum as a career? The opportunities in the white paper will undoubtedly be available more to full time employee pharmacists and proprietors than temporary staff. Also, I believe that the white paper opportunities will give employed pharmacists more clout with the multiples. That and the emergence of the PDA in my mind see the tide turning in favour of profesional autonomy.

With regard to "why work for the multiples", assuming you are assertive and don't roll over every time something is demanded, the continuity of employment (how easy is it to get top dollar locum rates in February?), paid sick leave, training etc are not to be sniffed at, especially when you are in the early stages of your learning curve. I am in the middle stages of my learning curve and it won't be completed until I go to the great dispensary in the sky!