subject: Hiring Medical Professionals Through Locum Agencies [print this page] The term locum is derived from the Latin phrase locum tenens and means to hold the place of, to substitute for. A survey conducted recently indicated that almost half of the total population of doctors prefer appointment through a locum agency as they had the luxury of working as per their own flexible hours. Other factors that contribute to the popularity of the locum agencies include clinical experience, travel opportunities and the scope to earn more.
The popularity of the locum agencies has ensured that there is no dearth of workforce required for the medical field. The locum market is quite upbeat and the demand for skilled professionals in the market is been met by the workforce provided by these locums.
Locum agencies provide a number of services while recruiting a workforce. These include:
Recommendation schemes
Accommodation needs
On-call ratios
Market updates
Geographical preferences
Travel expenses
Attractive duration
Career Development
Hiring the services of a recruitment agency means that you can even use their services to recruit a team. You can use the services of an established agency to recruit specialists. The knowledgeable staff and skilled individuals on board can help to build a highly competent team. Locum agencies monitor the credentials of the medical professionals that they are recruiting pretty closely and therefore the organisation can be absolutely sure of the credibility of these individuals.
A locum agency recruits for diverse fields including:
General Medicine
Haematology
Dermatology
Gynaecology and Obstetrics
Cardiology
Oncology
Elderly Care
Rheumatology
Histopathology
Gastroenterology
Microbiology
Renal Medicine and Nephrology
Neurology
Working with a locum agency thus assures you that you have the opportunity to decide on a particular project only after you see that all your requirements have been met. These include income potential, community profile line up, geography, administrative agendas and even the style of practice.
You may wonder as to why healthcare organisations employ the services of such a staffing agency. The answer to this lies in the fact that at the time when doctors take a sabbatical from work, it is not possible to find a replacement at that point in time. A locum agency has a database of medical professionals who are listed on its rolls. Whenever there is a vacancy, a search is made through the database and then an appropriate candidate appointed for the same.
Clinics, medical groups and hospitals that conduct rural solo practices and large metro healthcare systems often need help for their physical recruitment and the services provided by these agencies are directed to serve this purpose. When the industry is faced with a crisis during the peak seasons, it is necessary to supplement the staff on its rolls with that of physicians hired from locum agencies. This way the requirements are met, the patients offered complete medical care and the doctors guaranteed a good remuneration package along with all the facilities that they would like to avail.
