Locum dentists, dental nurses, dental hygienists and therapists are highly sought after, and generous day rates reflect this. A locum can enable dental practices to cover ad-hoc, short or long-term absences on a full or part-time basis. Locums can support NHS practices, corporates, independents, prison services, domiciliary dental care, mobile units and the community care sector. There is no limit to the type of business they can collaborate with.

Locum dentists can earn £500 a day, or even higher – particularly in coastal areas. This can often be accompanied by additional incentives, like fully subsidised lab costs, to attract the best talent. While these costs can cause some practices to have concerns about appointing a locum, with the right approach, locum dentistry can be win-win, providing flexible work for clinicians, increasing capacity and income for practices, while also improving access to care for their patients.

Some considerations for dental practices

A locum can be a perfect solution for dental practices with an NHS contract they are struggling to fulfil. Taking on a locum can help these practices relieve their emergency 111 dental backlog, and some practices are being paid a set rate by integrated care boards (ICB) commissioning teams to accommodate this.

If a practice has a free surgery, but lacks the staff to operate it, not only is there no income from the space, but patients who could be served are not receiving treatment, and may seek help elsewhere. As long as practices book the right patients for the locum, most should be able to achieve a reasonable daily profit.

There might be concerns about the cost against potential benefits when it comes to working with locum professionals. The costs for appointing a locum are higher than investing in a permanent member of staff when broken down to daily pay, but the flexibility is a great advantage. Practices can try before they buy, and as most practices are looking for permanent staff when they seek a locum, this can be a good route to finding the right fit.

Practices may also want to ask for a guarantee, giving locums a minimum amount of work to complete daily. However, in many areas of the UK, candidates are in a strong position to negotiate a fixed fee with no target. If this is the case, practices are advised to monitor the costs and benefits closely. Where the costs do outweigh the benefits, they can make use of the inherent flexibility provided by using locum cover and quickly dispense with their services.

Making locum cover work using incentives

For those practices not convinced by this approach, targets can be employed successfully where they are used as an incentive. For example, offering £450 a day for 25 UDAs +/- £15 a UDA can offer the locum an opportunity to earn more than £500/day, as well as providing protection for the practice.

There are other ways to incentivise locums. Paying weekly can be a simple benefit that helps practices attract higher quality clinicians. Many seeking locum work have been stung by having to chase practices for monthly payment. This can be stressful and inconvenient, and word spreads quickly, making it difficult for the practice to appoint good quality locums in the future. Providing a locum dentist or dental hygienist/therapist with the most experienced dental nurse can also make their time with your practice a better one, enabling them to get through more patients, and hit the ground running.

Hygienists and therapist locum support

The pool of available dental hygiene and therapist locums is growing. The dentist can do a lot of the treatment planning and any band 2 work can then be referred to a dental therapist. This enables the dentist to use their valuable time more strategically.

A practice may wish for additional support in reaching the annual UDA deadline. During any busy period, taking on locum therapist can result in a smoother patient journey and faster treatment. In addition, many locum therapists are overseas dentists, and are highly experienced – even over-qualified for the role. More and more practices are using dental therapists with great results for their patients. With direct access, dental therapists can create capacity for an additional 4-5k UDAs a year.

Working with a dedicated consultant

Dental Elite offers expertise, experience and support for practices seeking locum support. The team have their fingers on the pulse when it comes to the locum market, and offer bespoke services to ensure the process is simple and stress-free. The highly experienced team leads clients through all paperwork, invoicing and compliance processes, as well as ensuring the right candidates are matched with the right practices.

With the right candidates and the right help and advice, using locum cover can bolster your practice, protecting it from letting down patients due to clinician absence, or any other gaps in services. The flexibility can also enable your practice to test new approaches as well as find the perfect permanent hire.

 

For more information on Dental Elite visit www.dentalelite.co.uk, email info@dentalelite.co.uk or call 01788 545 900

 

Author: Luke Arnold – Recruitment Manager at Dental Elite

Luke has more than 13 years’ experience working in the recruitment sector, and has developed his skills specifically within the dental industry since joining the team at Dental Elite in 2011. He is currently the Recruitment Manager for the company, where his chief responsibility is to find the job vacancies dental professionals need to achieve their goals and truly excel. 

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