A locum, or locum tenens, is a person who temporarily fulfills the duties of another; the term is especially used for

physicians A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

. For example, a ''locum tenens physician'' is a physician who works in the place of the regular physician. Other positions can be held as locum, particularly social workers, counselors, nurses and other professionals. ''Locum tenens'' is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

phrase meaning "place holder", akin to the French ''

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

''.

In UK healthcare

In the United Kingdom, the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

on average has 3,500 locum doctors working in hospitals on any given day, with another 17,000 locum general practitioners. On the other hand, GP locums (freelance general practitioners) mostly work independently from locum agencies either as self-employed or via freelance GP chambers based on the NASGP's

Sessional GP A sessional GP is an umbrella term for GPs whose work is organised on a sessional basis, as opposed to GP partners (also called GP principals) whose contract is generally for 24-hour care. The term was first coined by the National Association of S ...

Support Team (SGPST) model. Some GPs have been employed by the primary care trusts (PCTs) to provide locum cover. However, PCTs were abolished in 2013 and replaced by the

clinical commissioning group Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were NHS organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished and replaced by Integ ...

s (CCGs).

Advantages and disadvantages

Locums provide a ready means for organizations to fill positions that are temporarily vacant or for which no long-term funding is available. Working as a locum allows a professional to gain experience in a variety of work environments or specialties. Some locum recruitment agencies offer pre-employment training to foreign medical graduates before their first professional experience in the

primary care Primary care is the day-to-day healthcare given by a health care provider. Typically this provider acts as the first contact and principal point of continuing care for patients within a healthcare system, and coordinates other specialist care t ...

system. However, the locum situation also poses a number of disadvantages such as the transient nature of the assignment means extra stress and work for locums whenever they assume a new position. For the hiring organisation, that generally means that the required flexibility and the lack of guaranteed income must be rewarded with higher compensation."Career focus – Locum doctors"
– Dr Philip Morgan, '' BMJ'' 7074, vol. 314. 11 January 1997 In professions that require knowledge of patient histories, locums may provide work of lower quality or be perceived as doing so. They may also experience resentment from permanent staff because they are paid more or considered to shoulder less responsibility.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Locum Tenens Temporary employment Latin words and phrases