Day Lewis Pharmacy has struck a deal with Locate a Locum for the shift-booking platform provider to roll out its locum-booking system across the multiple, it was announced today (September 5).

 

Read more: UPDATED: Locums used more but ‘working fewer hours’, workforce survey reveals

 

Locate a Locum will provide Day Lewis with a “streamlined scheduling functionality” for booking and paying locums that will be used across the multiple’s 267 pharmacies from today, it said.

 

The technology will report to the multiple’s locum co-ordinators in its Croydon head office, it added.

 

Read more: Locum rates rise by a fifth to nearly £39 UK average, booking agency reveals

 

Managers at Day Lewis will use Locate a Locum “to plan and manage staff rotas” to fill staff gaps at its pharmacies, while locums will use it to “better” manage their work schedules, preferred locations and “commitments”, the booking platform said.

 

Locate a Locum, founded in 2017, now boasts the “largest pool” of locums in the UK, with over 30,000 pharmacists on its books, it claimed.

 

 

“Game-changer”

 

 

Sam Patel, executive director of Day Lewis, described Locate a Locum’s service as a “game-changer”, allowing communication between potential locums and locum co-ordinators.

 

The service will allow locums to “book instantly” and get paid for their shifts “quickly, in time and in full”, he said.

 

He added that the multiple would now have “more opportunities to bring some of the best locums in the country to come and work with us”.

 

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Mr Patel said that Day Lewis wanted a “faster and more user-friendly” system for locums that would give them instant feedback when placing a booking for a shift, compared to its previous system.

 

Locate a Locum chief executive Jonathon Clarke said he was “delighted” about Day Lewis’s decision to appoint his company.

 

Mr Clarke said that Locate a Locum had worked with Mr Patel to make sure that he would have an “innovative, tech-rich solution” that would support Day Lewis’s growing business.

 

 

Locum workforce

 

 

The announcement comes after the Pharmacist Defence Association (PDA) revealed last month (August 18) that it had helped locum pharmacists recover £65,000 in outstanding wages “so far” this year.

 

Earlier that month, C+D reported that the community pharmacy workforce survey for 2022, published by NHS England (NHSE), showed that locum pharmacists were being relied on more but were “working fewer hours on average”.

 

Read more: Revealed: The average locum pharmacist pay rate in 2022

 

And in June, a rates analysis by Locate a Locum showed that the average UK pay rates for locum pharmacists rose by 19% to almost £39 per hour in the year ending in March compared to the previous year.

 

And in February, C+D revealed that locums across the UK were on average paid £33.30 per hour in 2022, according to a total of 269 responses from locum pharmacists, with the average rate rising by £5.20 (19%) on the previous year.