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Writer's pictureKatie Alvers

Locum Cover Booking Tips for Pharmacy Businesses

Pharmaseekers use their decades of experience and knowledge of current industry trends to provide booking tips to Pharmacy Businesses.


 


Favourite Locum? Secure them quickly.


Do you and your staff have a particular locum (maybe a few) who fits in really well with your business? Maybe they have great chemistry with team members or they can label, serve on the till and answer a call all at the same time. Whatever it is, we know that when a business finds the best locum for them, staff being absent no longer needs to be a dreaded situation. At Pharmaseekers, we encourage you to let us know when a locum has been a particular success and we mark these locums as favourites for your company.


Our advice to you is, secure those favourite locums as soon as you can. It's really likely that your favourite locum is a favourite with lots of other companies too. Good qualities in a locum tend to be qualities valued in most companies and they too, will be wanting to book your favourite when they need cover.


We urge you to secure the services of your favourite locums in advance to avoid not being able to book them for the dates you need covering. Being able to give plenty of notice of cover needs is a big factor is being able to secure a locum's services. We will keep in touch with you regularly to make sure we know when you need cover. As soon as we know, we'll get in touch with your favourite locums to see if they are available to book those dates for you.


Another approach a lot of our customers take is to ask the locum for their availability. They then compare the locums availability and their own rotas and calendars to secure the locum for dates that suit business needs.



 


Provide flexibility wherever possible


There will be plenty of situations when the dates you need covering are set in stone. However, there are great benefits to employing a flexible approach to locum cover when possible.


Maybe you have some annual leave you need to take off but are flexible with when that might be? At Pharmaseekers, you could provide us with a period of when your leave could fall and we could then return to you with a few options and you can choose what best suits you.



 


Try a new approach to cover


Did you know that locums can provide you with much more than just sickness or annual leave cover? We have customers who choose the services of a locum in other ways to enhance and support their business:

  • Vaccination Service Cover: We have customers who specifically book locums to either a) provide flu and/or COVID vaccinations in their facilities or b) cover front of house whilst their own staff provide vaccination services to patients. At Pharmaseekers, we can help you secure locums with vaccination training in order to assist you with such a requirement.


  • Regular Day Cover: Some pharmacy business owners identify days which regularly require additional staff coverage. This might be just one day a week, so nothing which requires recruiting a permanent staff member, but something which requires someone once a week, maybe even bi-weekly, who is familiar with the branch to provide additional support. At Pharmaseekers, we can assist with securing you a reliable, experienced locum to join your team without the need for permanent recruitment.


  • Staffing outside of Community Pharmacy: If you're reading this thinking that locums can only provide cover in traditional pharmacy businesses, you might be missing a trick. If your business could use the knowledge and expertise of a pharmacy professional then a locum might be just what you need. We have provided locum pharmacists, dispensers and technicians into a wide variety of roles. We have booked locums for care home companies needing medication audits and MAR chart reviews, veterinary medication suppliers needing a pharmacist oversight and lots of other non-traditional settings. Get in touch today if you would like to discuss booking the services of a pharmacy locum.


 

Use Pharmaseekers


We are a small, approachable team of four and we know our locums and the industry really well. Our agency has been running for over 20 years and we have a lot of experience providing pharmacy businesses with the locum cover solutions they need. Keep in touch with us, call us to discuss what your business needs right now or any questions you might have about current trends in the industry.


As a registered customer of Pharmaseekers, you have access to a bespoke, online system which provides you with efficiency without the loss of any control in decision making. Your account has lots of great tools which take all the hassle out of sourcing locums but still hands you ultimate control in who is booked, when they are booked and the cost of the booking.


  • Vacancies planner: A quick and easy to use tool which allows you add on multiple vacancies at once, you can even edit any particulars before submitting the requests. If you have more than one branch, you can even add vacancies on for multiple locations at the same time.

  • Booking offers screen: A list of all your offers with a simple interface allowing you to respond to offers. You will be able to see the locums details, all the vacancy information, the rate on offer and response buttons.

  • Counteroffers: Got a locum offer through that doesn't match the rate you can pay for this vacancy? You can use the Counteroffer to return an offer back to the locum at the max rate you consider. If the locum opts not to accept it, any other locums viewing the vacancy will see the max rate you can currently consider.


If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!



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