An Oxford-based GP has set up a UK-wide website in order to help bring together locums and practice managers looking for cover, and provide information on courses and local groups. The site, www.locum-online.com, was set up by Dr Willemina Rietsema, a locum herself for five years, after she learned of problems from other locums at her local Oxford group who found it difficult to get information about work available. “Because I am a locum, and speak to quite a lot of locums, I hear the same problems from absolutely everybody,” Dr Rietsema told E-Health Insider. “Every new member comes with the same questions." The website has been running since the beginning of November, and already has around 200 users. It costs £85 per year to access, with the first six months’ subscription free. A simple bulletin board system is used to post vacancies. Dr Rietsema said that this system was chosen because it targeted locums who were actively looking for work: “It services the practices because it’s a very precise way to post a locum job. Practice managers can spend days on the phone ringing round a locum lists that are often out of date." According to Dr Riesema, a system was needed on a national basis as many locums tend to travel around the country and may not have knowledge of local job agencies, courses or openings within practices. “The local (Oxford) website doesn’t work for areas like Swindon,” she explained. “I have no idea who needs a locum, and maybe there’s a practice in dire need of a locum on the morning I am in the area." Another feature of the site is the local courses and training advertised, as well as public health alerts. This can help locums who move around the country regularly who don’t have access to a regular postbox, says Dr Reitsema: “If you are a GP in practice you get all the post, but as a local, you work one day there, two days here. You don’t get anything of that." Dr Reitsema is hoping that the bulletin board will mark a change in the way that locums are matched with vacancies. “People are not used to a bulletin board as opposed to a locum agency," she explained, saying that the system was foxing some practice managers who thought that there was a charge for each vacancy they posted online. The internet was a very “low-cost and democratic” way of recruiting for locum cover, she argued. “You think, why didn’t people do this 10 years ago?"
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