NES Healthcare Management Services

Our guides to working as a locum offer you some useful information and links. Of course, if you have any other questions that are not answered on our website, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Working together

Offers of work and acceptance

Priority is given to those doctors who keep in touch and are easily contactable, so don’t forget to make sure that we always have an up-to-date phone/mobile number and an email address we can use to contact you.

Your Recruitment Consultant will telephone you with job offers but you should be aware that there may be other candidates put forward and you may not be successful every time.

If you are definitely prepared to take the job we will forward your details to the Hospital's Medical Staffing Department. It can sometimes take a few days for them to get back to us, so in the meantime if you become unavailable for the job you should let us know immediately so we can withdraw your CV.

If you are successful, we will inform you immediately and you should confirm your acceptance. You are then firmly committed to the job and we will send a confirmation to the hospital.

Confirmation of work and your first day

You will receive a comprehensive booking confirmation from your Recruitment Consultant prior to your placement start, this will state:

Where and who you have to report to
Hospital Address & telephone number.
Your start and finish times and any on-call dates if known
Travel details
Your rate of pay and any other information required.

We will also provide you with an ID badge to wear whilst at the hospital. Please provide us with 2 passport size photos for this purpose.

Cancellation of bookings by clients

Clients do hold the right to cancel appointments, vary rotas or terminate positions. In these instances we will endeavour to offer you alternative work, although this cannot always be guaranteed.

Cancellation of bookings by doctors

When a hospital chooses you for a position they may forego several other candidates. You should never accept a booking if you have no intention of working it. Continued cancellation bookings without good reason will discourage us from offering you future work.

Working as a locum

Locum work as your main employment

If we are your only employer you should send us your P45 form from your previous employer. If you do not have one please request a P46 from us, this will enable us to tax you correctly. Approximately six weeks after the end of the tax year we will send you a form called a P60 which is a statement of earnings, tax and national insurance deductions.

Locum work as a second job

If you are working full-time in another capacity you may already pay the maximum National Insurance (NI) contribution. You would qualify for a refund of all additional NI paid if you can prove, at the end of the tax year that you have earned over Ł30,000 in your main job.

If you are still employed in your main job at the end of the tax year we will send you a P60 form.

You should send your last payslips from all your subsidiary jobs (up to month 12 or week 53) and a copy of the P60 and with a covering letter requesting a refund to:

Inland Revenue National Insurance Contributions Office,
Refunds Group
Longbenton
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
NE98 1ZZ

Self-employment

We are happy to offer locum work to self employed doctors or independent contractors. Please contact your Recruitment Consultant for further information.

Maximum working hours

You should ensure that working as a locum will not cause you to breach the controls on hours set out in the new deal on junior doctors' hours. Working to excess may negate the benefits of crown indemnity and should tiredness be blamed if a mishap occurs, it could have serious implications. Your acceptance of work is taken as evidence that you will not breach the controls.

Training recognition for locum work

If a position is normally recognised for training it may also be recognised if you do the same job as a locum. To check whether you may receive recognition at the end of the job you should consult the appropriate royal college for advice before taking up the locum post.

Official acts

Criminal convictions

Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders act 1974 (exceptions) Order 1975, applicants for locum medical posts are not entitled to withhold information about convictions or caution which for other purposes are 'spent'. Doctors are expected to provide NES with a statement of any criminal convictions or cautions.

Legal context for medical practice

You are expected to have an understanding and experience of the legal context for medical practice appropriate to the posts you undertake (e.g. the application of the Mental Health Act 1983 or the Mental Health Act (Scotland) 1984 in psychiatric practice). For further information, the BMA publication 'Rights and responsibilities of Doctors' (ISBN 0-7279-0753-0) is recommended.

Working time regulations

On the 1st October 1998 the government issued a directive on working time regulations. The directive applies to all doctors who have employed status (whole-time and part-time), excluding doctors in training (house officers, senior house officers, registrars, and specialist registrars) and those acting as locums in the training grades. We are therefore required by law to have on file a signed 48-hour waiver form to exclude you from these regulations, otherwise the company would have to limit your average weekly working time to 48 hours. This waiver is incorporated into the NES registration form.

Immigration status

If you are a non-UK resident it is your responsibility to inform us of your immigration status and forward the necessary documentation for our files. Any doctor who does not produce documentation will not be offered work with NES until all relevant documents are held on file.

Police check

In positions where you will have substantial access to children, the sick or vulnerable you will be required to have a British Police Criminal Record check (CRB), which will identify all past convictions, including those passed as “spent”. Please note: many employers now require a police check for all healthcare professionals. If you are from outside the UK, please apply for a police check in your home country before travelling to the UK. If you reside in UK please contact your nearest police station and request the following forms ‘Data Protection Forms: Request for access to Information held on Police Computers’.

Please note that without a police check the positions you can apply

for will be limited.

Hepatitis B

The NHS wish to protect doctors and patients from contracting Hepatitis B and it is impossible to place doctors in work if they have not provided information regarding their Hepatitis B status. All hospitals require a photocopy of a UK pathology report, which includes details of titre level, together with your full name and address. If this is your first job in the UK you will need to get a UK report on arrival.

General requirements - Acceptable levels vary from hospital to hospital but a UK laboratory report showing a titre level of over 100 miu/ml and your date of birth carried out within the last two years will almost always be acceptable. A number of hospitals will accept evidence of non-responder to vaccine, natural immunity or low infectivity, which is normally discussed by your Occupational Health Department or GP.

Getting a certificate - If you have recently had an occupational health medical, your Hepatitis B status may have been evaluated and the result sent to your GP. You should ask your GP for a confirmation letter, which will include the titre level and your date of birth and should not just state 'immune'. Alternatively, occupational health may provide you with a copy of the result.

Vaccine against Hepatitis B - This should be available on request from the Occupational Health Department for NHS employees. For doctors not in direct NHS employment it should be available free of charge from your GP.

The full vaccination course is a lengthy process so we recommend you obtain an HBsAG antigen level to prove your non-infectivity.
Testing - Blood tests can be obtained via your GP (the result may take a while), or via laboratories throughout the UK. The result is generally available within 48 hours, or alternatively, at Medicentre. There are 5 Medicentres based in London train stations: Euston, Oxford Street, Bank, Waterloo and Victoria and the result can be available within 24 hours. The charges vary depending on where you go; however, you should be aware that the majority of hospitals require an occupational health lab report.

Insurance

Medical defence organisations

Medical defence organisations offer a doctor many benefits and, as a doctor, you must have this type of cover prior to accepting a placement. For more information visit :

http://www.the-mdu.com/gp/index.asp

http://www.medicalprotection.org/medical/united_kingdom/default.asp

Useful Links

www.gmc-uk.org

www.homeoffice.gov.uk

www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk

www.multimap.com

www.streetmap.co.uk

www.thetube.com

www.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney

www.theaa.com/travelwatch/planner_main.asp

We're here to help you, to help others.