locum  /ˈləʊkəm/  late 19th century: short for locum tenens

a person who stands in temporarily for someone else of the same profession, especially a doctor or cleric.

Do you have a negative association with the term locum? Can I try and shift your perception? Can I help you view them as a superhuman registered clinician who is just here to save your clinical day? Challenge accepted — let’s go.

Before you come for me… YES I am a clinician. YES I am a locum. And importantly YES I too was a clinic owner and employer. I lived the clinic owner’s juxtaposition of knowing that anxiety of wondering if your employees were going to blow up that finely tuned patient-clinician relationship that you took years to build, nurture and maintain.

I lived the experience of ringing every patient at 7am to cancel their appointments. Felt the dread of disappointment — this new inconvenience to them. Felt the burn of a whole day’s lost revenue. Felt the fall into the red with holiday loading and sick leave on top.

I dreamt of a superhuman resource I could have called at 7am to save my clinical day. They are called a locum — a superhuman resource here to save your clinical day.

The case for locums

The pros

• Cover your staff member’s sick leave
• Cover your staff member’s holiday leave
• Save you from cancelling your clinical revenue
• Save your patients from waiting to get back into the diary
• Available when you need them
• Bring fresh, new skills to your clinic
• Can quickly adapt to a new clinical situation
• A fresh set of eyes for your patients’ pathologies
• A fresh new energy in your clinic
• Not an employee — no sick leave, no holiday loading
• “Try before you buy” — could they be your next permanent hire?

The concerns (and why they’re manageable)

• What if you don’t like them?
• What if your patients don’t like them?
• How will they know what to do?

These are fair questions — and they’re the exact reason HeyLucy! lets you review locum profiles, check credentials, and choose who walks through your door before you commit to anything.

Locums are not the undesirables

I know that I am not an undesirable, un-employable clinician. I know this because I am one — a locum. I am a caring human with great communication skills, an evidence-based clinician with over 22 years of clinical experience. I am a CEO to three rogue humans, house cleaner, dog walker, grocery acquirer, extracurricular taxi driver, parents’ WhatsApp group follower… and clinician.

I choose to locum because I need my work life to be somewhat malleable to maintain my “jack of all trades” existence.

Locums come in all shapes and sizes

• The bored mid-career clinician who needs a new experience
• The newly retired clinician who wants to just do a bit here and there
• The clinic owner who has just sold their practice and wants a taste of freedom
• The adventurous clinician who wants to surf and travel the east coast
• The parent who needs to maintain a malleable existence

Locums are you and me. They are registered clinicians who are here to save your clinical day. Feel free to call them superhuman resources — but personally, I just love the feeling of helping out my fellow clinicians. It makes me feel useful, needed, and full of extra purpose.

Have I moved your perception, even slightly?

Next time you have a gap in your schedule — a sick staff member, a holiday, an unexpected absence — before you start ringing patients to cancel, consider reaching for a superhuman resource instead.

HeyLucy! connects allied health clinics with verified, experienced locums across Australia. Post a shift in minutes and find cover fast — no recruiters, no markups, full transparency.

Hayley — Your fellow locum xoxo