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

physicians A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...

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. In the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, an example of a ''locum tenens'' is an

apostolic administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

, often a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

who temporarily governs a vacant see until a new ordinary is appointed. ''Locum tenens'' is a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

phrase meaning "place holding", akin to the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

topoteretes () was a Byzantine Empire, Byzantine technical term, meaning deputy or lieutenant (). As such, it was used in different ways throughout the Empire's history. In the 9th-11th centuries, the was the deputy of senior military commanders of the , the ...

'', or French ''

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

''.

United Kingdom healthcare

In the United Kingdom, the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

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

primary care trust Primary care trusts (PCTs) were part of the National Health Service in England from 2001 to 2013. PCTs were largely administrative bodies, responsible for commissioning primary, community and secondary health services from providers. Until 31 May ...

s (PCTs) to provide locum cover. However, PCTs were abolished in 2013 and replaced by the

clinical commissioning group Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were National Health Service (England), National Health Service (NHS) organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to replace Strategic health authority, strategic health authorities and NHS pr ...

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 An international medical graduate (IMG), earlier known as a foreign medical graduate (FMG), is a physician who has graduated from a medical school outside of the country where he or she intends to practice. The term non-local medical graduate may b ...

before their first professional experience in the

primary care Primary care is a model of health care that supports first-contact, accessible, continuous, comprehensive, and coordinated person-focused care. It aims to optimise population health and reduce disparities across the groups by ensuring equitable ...

system. However, reliance on locums has some disadvantages: *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 lack of guaranteed income must be rewarded with higher compensation. *In professions that require knowledge of patient histories, locums may provide work of lower quality or be perceived as doing so. They may also be resented by 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 Temporary institutions