The use of locum doctors in the NHS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The use of locum doctors in the NHS: understanding and improving the safety and quality of care
IRAS ID
278888
Contact name
Kieran Walshe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
The aim of this NIHR funded research is to provide evidence on the extent, quality and safety of medical locum practice and the implications of medical locum working for health service organisation and delivery in primary and secondary care in the English NHS. The use of locum doctors in the NHS has grown rapidly over the last decade, and there have been widespread and sustained concerns about the quality/safety, cost and effective use of locum doctors. There is little prior research on locum practice/performance to confirm those concerns or to inform the development of working arrangements for locums which will assure safety and the quality of care.
The study will run for two years and will address three main research questions:
• What is the nature, scale and scope of locum doctor working in the NHS in England?
• How may locum doctor working arrangements affect patient safety and the quality of care?
• How do the clinical practice and performance of locum and permanent doctors compare?Our mixed methods study will find out where locum doctors work in the NHS in England, what kinds of work they do, and how the use of locum doctors is organised. This is a mixed methods study, combining the use of a national survey of NHS organisations, in-depth qualitative research in four case study organisations including interviews with locums and other healthcare staff, focus groups with patient groups and observations of meeting relating to locum working, and quantitative analysis of existing routine data sets to address these questions in both primary and secondary care.
REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0386
Date of REC Opinion
16 Oct 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion