A general practitioner locum fills a temporary clinical gap in a practice when a permanent doctor is unavailable. The reasons vary: leave, illness, recruitment lag, or planned workload management across peak periods. The locum arrangement differs from permanent employment in contract structure, credentialling responsibility, indemnity coverage, and how payment is processed. For the doctor, it offers control over when and where they work. For the practice, it keeps appointment books filled and prevents patient overflow to neighbouring clinics or emergency departments.
What Defines a General Practitioner Locum
A general practitioner locum is engaged on a temporary basis to deliver clinical services without the commitment of ongoing employment. The term "locum" originates from the Latin locum tenens, meaning "to hold the place of." In practice, that translates to a doctor who steps into a roster gap, provides care under their own registration and indemnity, and invoices either the practice or a recruitment intermediary for the sessions worked.
The engagement model varies. Some locums work directly with the practice under a locum agreement. Others are placed through a recruitment agency that handles credentialling, rostering, and payment logistics. The BMA's practical locum handbook outlines contract structures and pay-setting approaches used in the UK, many of which mirror Australian arrangements.
Contract Structure and Duration
Most general practitioner locum contracts are structured as one-off sessions, block bookings across several weeks, or rolling arrangements that continue until either party provides notice. Unlike permanent roles, there is no expectation of ongoing work beyond what is specified in the booking.
The contract should specify the session duration, start and end time, hourly or sessional rate, invoice submission process, cancellation terms, and who holds responsibility for credentialling verification. A sessional rate might be quoted as a flat fee per half-day or as an hourly rate. Hourly rates for general practitioner locum work in metro areas typically range between $150 and $250 depending on experience, location, and whether the booking includes after-hours or weekend cover.
Credentialling and Registration
Every general practitioner locum must hold current registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), valid medical indemnity insurance, and any additional credentials required by the practice or its accrediting body. Practices using locums need to verify these credentials before the doctor begins work. The process is not optional, even for a single session.
For practices that engage locums through a recruitment service, credentialling verification is typically handled by the agency. Best Practice Medical verifies AHPRA registration, medical indemnity insurance, relevant college memberships, and facility-specific requirements before any doctor is placed. The process is managed in-house, with clinical oversight ensuring credentialling standards are met before confirmation.
In practices that book locums directly, the responsibility falls to the practice manager or principal. This includes checking AHPRA registration status, sighting indemnity certificates, and confirming the doctor's prescriber number and Medicare provider number if billing will be processed under the practice's provider number structure.
Indemnity and Insurance Considerations
Medical indemnity for a general practitioner locum works differently than for salaried doctors. A locum working as a contractor must hold their own professional indemnity insurance. This is a non-negotiable requirement under AHPRA registration standards and is verified by most practices before the first session.
The NHS Resolution resource hub for general practice indemnity explains state indemnity arrangements in the UK, where locum work may fall under different coverage depending on engagement type. In Australia, the model is simpler: if you are working as a locum, you carry your own indemnity.
Run-Off Cover and Retroactive Coverage
Indemnity policies for locums typically include run-off cover, which protects the doctor against claims made after they stop working, even if the clinical incident occurred during a period of active practice. This is particularly relevant for locums who move between multiple practices or take extended breaks between engagements.
Retroactive coverage is the other side of the equation. It covers claims arising from incidents that occurred before the current policy started, provided the doctor held indemnity at the time of the incident. A general practitioner locum moving between insurers needs to ensure there are no gaps in retroactive coverage, or they risk being uninsured for past work.
Payment Models and Tax Implications
How a general practitioner locum is paid depends on the engagement model. Some locums invoice the practice directly and are responsible for their own tax, superannuation, and GST obligations. Others are engaged through a recruitment agency that manages invoicing on their behalf.
Contractor vs. Employee Status
The distinction between contractor and employee status has tax and superannuation implications. A locum engaged as a contractor invoices for services, registers for GST if their turnover exceeds the threshold, and does not receive superannuation contributions from the practice. The HMRC guidance on employment status and tax considerations for locum doctors outlines how tax authorities assess whether a doctor is genuinely self-employed or should be treated as an employee for tax purposes.
In Australia, the Australian Taxation Office applies similar tests. The key factors include whether the doctor has control over how the work is performed, whether they can delegate the work to another doctor, whether they provide their own equipment, and whether they bear financial risk. A general practitioner locum who works fixed hours set by the practice, uses the practice's systems and equipment, and has no ability to substitute another doctor is more likely to be classified as an employee, even if the contract says otherwise.
Invoice Management
For locums who invoice directly, payment terms are typically 14 to 30 days from invoice submission. Practices that are slow to pay create cash flow issues for doctors who rely on timely payment between engagements. A clear invoice process, agreed upfront, reduces friction. The invoice should specify the date, session times, hourly or sessional rate, total amount, GST component if applicable, and payment instructions.
Recruitment agencies that manage invoicing on behalf of the doctor remove this administrative burden. The agency submits the invoice to the practice, follows up on payment, and transfers funds to the doctor once received. This is particularly useful for locums working across multiple practices who would otherwise spend significant time managing their own accounts receivable.
Why Practices Use General Practitioner Locums
Practices turn to locums for several reasons. The most common is unplanned absence: a permanent doctor calls in sick, takes parental leave, or leaves the practice unexpectedly. A general practitioner locum keeps the appointment book running and prevents patients from being redirected or delayed.
Planned Leave and Extended Cover
Planned leave is easier to manage but still requires a locum arrangement if the practice wants to maintain patient access. A doctor taking four weeks of annual leave represents a significant gap in clinical capacity. Without locum cover, those appointments either disappear or are redistributed across the remaining doctors, increasing workload and wait times.
Extended cover for parental leave, secondment, or sabbatical can stretch across several months. In these cases, the practice may book a general practitioner locum for a longer engagement, sometimes with an option to extend or convert to a permanent role if both parties are interested.
Recruitment Gaps
The time between a permanent doctor resigning and a replacement starting can be several months. Advertising, interviewing, credentialling, and notice periods all take time. A locum fills that gap and maintains continuity for patients who would otherwise be redistributed or forced to wait.
The RACGP national workforce strategy highlights workforce planning and locum work implications in the Australian context, noting that sessional and temporary work is increasingly common as doctors seek greater control over their working arrangements.
What Practices Need From a General Practitioner Locum
Practices expect a general practitioner locum to deliver the same standard of care as a permanent doctor, despite having less familiarity with the practice's systems, patient cohort, and local referral pathways. That expectation is reasonable, but it requires proper onboarding and access to the practice's clinical software, referral templates, and internal protocols.
Onboarding and System Access
A locum walking into a practice for the first time needs access to the patient management system, prescription software, and any templates or workflows the practice uses. Without this, they spend the first session navigating unfamiliar interfaces rather than seeing patients. The CQC mythbuster on locums clarifies that practices remain responsible for supervision, indemnity verification, and ensuring locums are adequately supported.
A brief orientation before the first session makes a difference. This includes a walkthrough of the clinical software, an introduction to reception and nursing staff, confirmation of appointment lengths, and a summary of any practice-specific protocols such as how chronic disease management plans are coded or where after-hours handover notes are filed.
Continuity and Handover
A general practitioner locum does not have the same longitudinal relationship with patients as a permanent doctor, but they still contribute to continuity if the handover process is functional. Clear clinical notes, documented management plans, and access to previous consultation records allow the locum to pick up where the last doctor left off.
When a locum finishes a session, their notes become the handover for the next doctor who sees that patient. Practices that rely heavily on locums need a consistent approach to documentation so that patient care does not fragment across multiple temporary doctors.
Revalidation and Professional Development
Revalidation requirements apply to locums in the same way they apply to permanent doctors. In the UK, NHS England guidance for locums covers revalidation, supervision, and support for doctors in short-term placements. The principle is straightforward: temporary work does not exempt a doctor from maintaining their professional development or collecting the evidence required for registration renewal.
In Australia, AHPRA requires all registered medical practitioners to complete continuing professional development (CPD) aligned with their scope of practice. A general practitioner locum working across multiple practices still needs to log CPD activities, participate in clinical audits, and demonstrate reflective practice. The challenge for locums is that they may not have access to the same structured CPD programs that permanent doctors receive through their employer.
Supervision and Collegial Support
Locums working in solo or small practices may have limited access to collegial support. A permanent doctor can turn to a colleague in the next room for a second opinion or informal case discussion. A locum may not have that option, particularly if they are the only doctor on site during a session. Practices that use locums regularly should clarify who the locum can contact for clinical support if needed, whether that is the principal, a senior permanent doctor, or an on-call arrangement.
The absence of structured supervision does not change the clinical and ethical responsibilities of the locum, but it does affect how isolated they feel during the session and how quickly they can resolve uncertainty about a complex case.
How to Find General Practitioner Locum Work
Doctors looking for general practitioner locum work have several options. Some practices advertise locum opportunities directly through their own networks or local medical associations. Others rely on recruitment agencies that specialise in medical staffing.
Direct Engagement vs. Agency Placement
Direct engagement with a practice offers more control over rate negotiation and contract terms, but it also places the administrative burden on the doctor. You manage your own credentialling, negotiate your own rate, submit your own invoices, and follow up on payment if the practice is late.
Agency placement removes much of that friction. The agency handles credentialling verification, negotiates rates on your behalf, manages rostering, and processes invoices. For doctors who want to focus on clinical work rather than administration, this model is more efficient. The trade-off is that the agency takes a margin, which is either built into the rate the practice pays or deducted from what the doctor receives.
Building a Locum Profile
A doctor starting out in locum work needs a clear profile that practices or agencies can assess quickly. This includes a CV, AHPRA registration number, indemnity certificate, fellowship status if applicable, and a summary of clinical interests or areas of experience. Practices booking a locum want to know whether the doctor has experience with the patient demographic they serve, whether they are comfortable managing complex chronic disease, and whether they can work autonomously without constant supervision.
Doctors interested in locum opportunities can explore available roles and register their interest through Best Practice Medical's services page, where the placement process is outlined along with the types of engagements available across metro and regional areas.
Rates and Benchmarking
General practitioner locum rates vary by location, session type, and the urgency of the booking. A planned booking several weeks in advance typically attracts a lower rate than a same-day callout to cover an unexpected absence. Weekend and after-hours sessions command a premium.
| Session Type | Typical Hourly Rate (Metro) | Typical Hourly Rate (Regional) |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday standard hours | $150 – $200 | $180 – $230 |
| Saturday | $200 – $250 | $230 – $280 |
| Sunday / Public holiday | $220 – $280 | $250 – $320 |
| After-hours (weeknight) | $180 – $230 | $200 – $260 |
These figures are indicative and reflect the range observed across New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland in 2026. Rates in remote or very hard-to-staff locations can exceed these benchmarks, particularly if the practice is covering accommodation and travel costs.
Rate Negotiation
Practices with ongoing locum needs may offer a lower per-session rate in exchange for a regular booking arrangement. A doctor who commits to a fixed number of sessions per month may accept a rate $20 per hour below the ad hoc market rate in exchange for predictable income and reduced downtime between engagements.
Rate negotiation depends on the balance of supply and demand. In areas with a shortage of available locums, doctors have more leverage. In metro areas with a larger pool of available doctors, practices can be more selective and rates tend to compress.
Regional and Rural Locum Work
Regional and rural practices rely heavily on locums, often more so than metro practices. The permanent workforce in these areas is smaller, and a single doctor taking leave can create a significant gap in local service capacity. A general practitioner locum in a regional town may be the only doctor available for several days, which changes the clinical responsibility and the type of cases presenting.
Rural locum work often includes travel and accommodation support. The practice or recruitment agency arranges flights, car hire, and accommodation, which are either provided at no cost to the doctor or invoiced separately. This makes regional work financially viable even when the session rate is not materially higher than metro rates, because the doctor's out-of-pocket costs are covered.
Case Mix and Clinical Complexity
The case mix in rural general practice tends to include more acute presentations, more procedural work, and a higher proportion of patients with multiple chronic conditions. A locum working in a rural practice may be expected to manage minor trauma, perform joint injections, insert IUDs, or provide antenatal care, depending on the practice's scope and the doctor's credentials.
Practices should brief the locum on what clinical scope is expected before the booking is confirmed. A doctor who has not performed certain procedures recently should not be placed in a situation where they are expected to deliver them without support or supervision.
For additional perspective on how rural healthcare relies on temporary doctors to maintain service continuity, the discussion in why regional healthcare relies on locum doctors outlines the structural pressures and workforce realities that drive this dependence.
Administrative and Billing Considerations
A general practitioner locum needs clarity on how billing is handled before the first patient is seen. In some practices, the locum bills under their own Medicare provider number and retains the full fee, minus the practice's percentage or a fixed room fee. In others, the practice bills under its own provider number and pays the locum a sessional or hourly rate regardless of how many patients are seen or what fees are collected.
Billing Models
The percentage model is common in general practice. The doctor retains a percentage of the billings generated during their session, typically between 65% and 75%, and the practice retains the remainder to cover overheads, reception, nursing support, and clinical consumables. Under this model, the doctor's income varies depending on how many patients are seen and what item numbers are billed.
The sessional rate model is simpler. The doctor is paid a fixed amount per session regardless of billings. This removes the incentive to see more patients than is clinically appropriate but also means the doctor does not benefit financially from managing complex cases that attract higher item numbers.
Medicare Provider Numbers and Locum Arrangements
A locum working under their own Medicare provider number must ensure the number is active for the location where they are practising. Medicare provider numbers are location-specific, and a doctor cannot bill under a provider number registered to a different location. If the locum is working in a new location, they need to apply for a provider number for that location before they start, which can take several weeks.
Some practices allow the locum to bill under the practice's Medicare provider number, which removes this administrative step. However, this arrangement requires the practice to take on the billing responsibility and the associated compliance obligations.
What Makes a Good General Practitioner Locum
From the practice's perspective, a good general practitioner locum arrives prepared, adapts quickly to unfamiliar systems, communicates clearly with reception and nursing staff, documents thoroughly, and does not leave clinical loose ends for the next doctor to resolve. The bar is not lower because the engagement is temporary.
From the doctor's perspective, a good locum engagement is one where the practice provides adequate onboarding, access to functional systems, clear expectations about scope and session structure, and timely payment. Locums who are treated as disposable or denied basic support are less likely to return, which creates a recruitment problem for practices that rely on repeat bookings.
Professionalism and Reliability
Reliability is a significant factor in whether a practice will rebook a locum. A doctor who cancels at short notice without a valid reason, arrives late, or fails to complete documentation creates work for others and damages their reputation within the local or agency network. The medical community in most regions is smaller than it appears, and word spreads quickly.
Professionalism includes being upfront about scope. If a practice asks a locum to perform a procedure or manage a case type they are not comfortable with, the correct response is to decline or request supervision, not to proceed and hope it works out. Practices respect honesty about clinical boundaries more than overconfidence that leads to poor outcomes.
Technology and Clinical Systems
A general practitioner locum needs to be functional across multiple clinical software platforms. Best Practice, Medical Director, and Zedmed are the most common in Australian general practice, but smaller or specialist practices may use other systems. A doctor who is rigid about only working with one platform limits their booking opportunities.
Most software platforms are intuitive enough that a competent clinician can navigate the core functions within an hour. However, advanced features such as recall systems, care plan templates, or pathology integration require more time to learn. Practices should not assume a locum will be immediately proficient in every feature of their system.
Telehealth and Hybrid Models
Some general practitioner locum roles now include telehealth sessions alongside face-to-face consultations. This hybrid model became more common during 2020 and has persisted where practices have maintained the infrastructure and patient demand exists. A locum working a telehealth session needs access to the practice's telehealth platform, clear instructions on how consultations are scheduled, and confirmation of how billing is processed for telehealth versus in-person items.
Telehealth locum work can be delivered remotely, meaning the doctor does not need to be physically present at the practice. This expands the geographic range of available work but also introduces questions about credentialling, supervision, and what constitutes the "location" for Medicare provider number purposes.
General practitioner locum work serves both doctors seeking flexible arrangements and practices managing gaps in permanent staffing. The engagement works when contracts are clear, credentialling is verified, indemnity is current, and both parties understand what is expected. For practices looking to fill temporary gaps with credentialled, experienced doctors, Best Practice Medical offers placement services that handle verification, rostering, and compliance so the focus stays on patient care rather than administrative coordination.