Locum doctors in the NHS: Understanding and improving the quality and safety of healthcare (31 January 2024)

Summary

Doctors working in temporary positions (known as locums) are a key component of the medical workforce and provide necessary flexibility and additional capacity for NHS organisations and services. There have been concerns about the quality and safety of locum practice and the way NHS uses locum doctors. The number of doctors working as locums, and the costs of this to the NHS have caused some concerns nationally in recent years. It has also been suggested that locum doctors may not provide as good a quality of care as permanent doctors.

Research carried out by a team at the University of Manchester provided important new information on these issues. The findings indicated that locum working and how locums were integrated into organisations could pose significant challenges for patient safety and quality of care.