Pros and cons of having a Locum at a healthcare unit

The term locum is something that that you all have heard about and it refers to a person who fulfills the duty of someone else temporarily. Having a locum at a healthcare unit means that the locum is a physician who is performing the duty of another physician who is not present or because the healthcare unit does not has enough staff. There are respective regulatory bodies that govern these professionals.

Locums in healthcare

There are more than 3,500 locum physicians working in UK hospitals on average every day. There are 17000 locum general practitioners as well. There are private agencies that tie up with the NHS and supply locum doctors. According to the figure published by NHS, more than 80% of these locum doctors are supplied by these private agencies and the remaining 20% is filled by agencies who have not signed this agreement.

There are also freelance locum general practitioners and these doctors work independently or through these agencies. Locum doctors are expected to be adaptable, flexible, professional, resourceful, and friendly, have knowledge about different IT systems and also be able to manage risk and pressure.

Pros and Cons

• The biggest benefit of having a locum at a healthcare unit is that he or she would be able to fill up the positions that are temporarily empty or the empty due the lack of funds
• Locums have the privilege to work in different work environments and this is something that most permanent employee do not encounter
• Locums are usually needed to be paid higher salaries than the permanent physicians in a healthcare unit or anywhere else and this means that the long term costs of the organization increases
• Locums are generally not liked by the permanent staffs as they get better salaries and are considered to shoulder lesser responsibilities