Where to find locum GP shifts

Most new locums start with one platform and stick to it out of habit. Worth knowing there are several different routes into work, and they don’t all surface the same shifts.

Booking platforms

The most common starting point for most locums:

• Lantum
• LocumDeck
• Patchwork Health

Each has its own mix of practices and areas it’s strongest in, and coverage varies regionally — a platform that’s thin on shifts in one part of the country might be the main source somewhere else. Worth having more than one set up rather than relying on a single platform’s algorithm to surface everything relevant to you.

Direct with practices

Some practices — especially ones you’ve worked with before, or trained at — will book you directly rather than through a platform, often at better rates since there’s no agency margin involved. This tends to build over time rather than being your first move: once a practice knows and likes working with you, it’s worth asking directly whether they’d book you for future gaps rather than only finding you through a platform.

Locum agencies

Larger staffing agencies (some cover GP work specifically, others across multiple healthcare roles) can be useful for volume and for areas you don’t have existing local contacts in. Worth comparing their fee structure and how much say you get over which shifts you’re offered before committing exclusively to one.

Word of mouth and local networks

Genuinely underrated. Other locums, your local LMC (Local Medical Committee), and GP WhatsApp or Facebook groups for your area often know about gaps before they hit a booking platform — particularly short-notice or awkward-to-fill sessions that practices would rather sort informally.

Out-of-hours and extended access

If in-hours locum work is thin where you are, out-of-hours providers and extended access hubs often have separate, sometimes less competitive, booking routes — worth registering with your local OOH provider even if it’s not your main source of work.

Keeping track once you’re juggling sources

The downside of using multiple platforms and direct contacts is exactly what it sounds like: bookings living in different places. Whatever you use to track sessions, make sure it’s not tied to a single platform’s own calendar — you want one place that captures everything, regardless of where the booking originally came from.