FAQs for GPs
Setting up as a GP on LocumDeck
Can I add my own bookings to LocumDeck?
Yes, you can. Our short video on how to add unconfirmed sessions to your LocumDeck calendar shows you how.
And you can confirm sessions on your LocumDeck calendar yourself too.
How do I use LocumDeck to find NHS GP jobs?
There are a few of ways you can use LocumDeck to find GP locum jobs in the UK.
You can look for GP locum and salaried GP jobs, both in GP practices near you and by exploring GP jobs at new practices.
Find NHS salaried GP jobs
LocumDeck has a GP jobs board that’s private to GPs and GP practices. Login to see the GP vacancies near you and across the UK.
Login to LocumDeck to browse GP jobs near you.
Find NHS GP locum jobs near you
LocumDeck has a smart way of booking designed by GP locums which means you don’t have to find work – the work finds you. It’s called Instant Book.
With Instant Book, you don’t have to wait for job alerts from practices. Instead, you set up your terms and profile, tell your chosen practices how you want to work and add your availability to LocumDeck’s calendar. Your practices can review your terms and credentials then book you instantly.
Practices like the efficiency of not having to post alerts and wait for responses, and you get the work you want on your terms, with minimal hassle and fewer booking errors.
Our LocumDeck Setup Guides have a step-by-step introduction, ‘Get booked by practices‘, which can get you started.
LOGIN TO SEE SETUP GUIDE ON GETTING BOOKED BY PRACTICES.
GPs can also look out for ‘Availability requests’ from local practices.
If a practice on LocumDeck needs cover but no locums have made themselves available for pre-set instant booking on the dates they need, the practice can send out an Availability request, to all GP locums on LocumDeck within a 45-minute radius.
GP locums can quickly respond by clicking on the request on the calendar, and selecting a session to offer for booking. The practice gets notified when a GP locum responds. The practice can review the GP’s LocumDeck profile and terms, and book you right away.
Join our free three-month trial to browse jobs and sessions.
Find NHS salaried GP and partner jobs
LocumDeck has a GP jobs board. Login to see the GP vacancies near you and across the UK.
Join for free to browse jobs and sessions on LocumDeck today – no credit card needed.
Can practices book me directly on LocumDeck?
Yes. We designed LocumDeck for you to set your own locum sessions and show availability to practices you choose to link with so they can book you directly. You don’t have to find work or wait for requests from practices – you can plan ahead, set your terms, then the work you want finds you. We call it Instant Book.
If you don’t want to use Instant Book, you can add your own bookings to your calendar too.
Our Setup Guide called Get booked by practices shows you how to set up for Instant Booking.
If you are in NASGP Locum Chambers, Instant Book will be the main way you get the work you want quickly and with minimal day to day hassle. The Chambers Managers support and oversee the process and help you and the practices with any complexities e.g. queries, cancellations, complaints, and special requests. Read more.
How do I set up my profile on LocumDeck?
In ‘Settings’ you can create a really smart-looking profile which you can share with practices.
How do I add a practice on LocumDeck?
Adding a practice from LocumDeck’s list of registered practices allows you to link with them so that you can:
- Synchronise their practice details with those in your address book so you are always up to date
- Get your invoices with automatic Locum A forms directly, as well as by email
- E-sign paperless NHS pension forms and return them to you instantly
- Have a clear record of all your manually booked and confirmed sessions with them
- If you have chosen to allow them to Instant Book, they will be able to see your live Committed Availability and Instant Book any sessions you authorise for them.
Linking with a practice on LocumDeck happens automatically if you add a practice to your address book from the LocumDeck list of practices, or if you manually add a practice to your address book that has details that precisely match a practice already on LocumDeck.
If there is a partial match between details of a practice in your address book with those of a practice on LocumDeck, you are offered the chance to synchronise with a practice.
If you manually add a practice to your address book that is not yet on LocumDeck, they are sent an email letting them know that an anonymised GP locum has added their practice to an address book and informing them what LocumDeck can do for their practice. And that it’s free for practices!
Can I set different types of session with different rates of pay?
Yes. LocumDeck is about allowing you to define your safe working conditions so you have flexibility and control in setting up your own session types and rates, and you can add as many as you need. You are provided with some helpful underpinnings for your session, such as specifying whether it’s on call, whether you’re agreeing to do visits etc, but the rest is up to you.
As well as using the session description to add key information about the session, you have other chances to add notes about your working conditions:
- When manually making your own booking, you can add notes to your confirmation emails.
- When using Instant Book feature, you get to add your own notes to the practice in ‘Notes to practice’.
How do I set my own terms and conditions?
Where are my terms and conditions displayed to the practice?
To practices you are linked with on LocumDeck, your terms and conditions will be included on your profile and visible to the practice whenever they access your profile.
Your terms and conditions are also included in any LocumDeck generated email sent to the practice e.g. request confirmation or final booking confirmation emails and invoice emails to the practices.
What if my terms and conditions vary between practices?
If your terms and conditions vary between practices, no problem.
We totally understand, and know from our own experience, that you may have varying conditions for each practice you work in. LocumDeck is designed around giving you the flexibility to define your working boundaries for each booking and for each practice in the following ways:
- Use Sessions you add to your practices to define your session structures e.g. different minimum consultation lengths, or numbers and types of patient contacts, catch up slots etc
- Use “Notes to practice” in each practice record so that when you’re using Instant Book, you have an extra ability to specify your working conditions to each practice
Then in the relevant section of LocumDeck >> Settings >> My terms & conditions, we suggest using the ‘Other’ options and using the free text options to explain this e.g. “Minimum consultation length as specified at the time of booking”.
Instant Book
Can I offer Instant Book availability for some, but not all, of my practices?
Yes, that is absolutely fine. Use the ‘Activate’ toggle to show practices your Instant Book availability.
How does LocumDeck's 'Instant Book' booking system work?
We designed LocumDeck for you to set your own sessions and show availability to practices you choose to link with so they can book you directly. You don’t have to wait for requests from practices – you can plan ahead, set your terms, then the work you want finds you. We call it Instant Book.
You can also see practices’ requests for cover.
How LocumDeck’s Instant Book works
When you set up ‘Instant Book’ in LocumDeck:
- You authorise which practices are allowed to see your real-time availability.
- For each practice you can specify in great detail the type of work you are prepared to carry out with them, at what times and at what rates.
- You pro-actively plan and add your ‘Availability’ to your calendar, so you can make considered decisions about your working patterns rather than having to make rushed decisions reactively in response to enquiries.
- Each of your authorised practices only ‘sees’ the sessions that you allow them to that fit within your ‘Available’ slots.
- Practices can see your credentials and your full term and conditions alongside your session availability to inform their booking decision.
- You are notified by text and email confirmation when you receive an ‘Instant Book’ booking on LocumDeck.
LocumDeck’s setup guides have a step-by-step introduction to the feature, called ‘Get booked by practices‘.
GP locum membership fees
In our three-month free trial or within one of our funded areas (funded areas) Instant Book is completely free.
After that:
- Membership (£12/month) – £15 per session.
- Membership Plus (£24/month) or Chambers (£31/month) – £11 per session for 20 sessions, then free.
All membership and booking fees are tax-deductible.
How does Instant Book handle travel time between practices?
LocumDeck uses Google Maps to calculate the typical journey time between practices. So, if there is not enough time between finishing a session in one practice to travel to a session start time in another practice, then you will not be visible or bookable by the second practice.
You can also set the maximum journey duration you are prepared to travel between practices in My availability settings.
TIP: If you only want to work in one practice a day, just set the travel between practices at 0 minutes and, once you’ve got a booking with a practice for part of that day’s availability, no other practice will be able to book you.
Availability requests
What happens after I’ve responded to an availability request?
The practice will immediately receive notifications from you and any other GP locums, as and when you respond. Sometimes the practice may need several GP locums for the same time slot, and every GP gets notified instantly when practices book them.
If the practice doesn’t book you, the session will be automatically be made available to your other chosen practices.
Tip: Availability requests (AVRs) are useful, but they’re not the best way to find work on LocumDeck. The practice will only need to use AVRs if locums haven’t already made themselves available. To stand the best chance of getting the session you want, at the rates and terms you choose, we always highly recommend you beat the practice to it and add your availability first, before practices need to post an AVR.
What are availability requests?
If a practice on LocumDeck needs cover but no locums have yet proactively made themselves available for Instant Book on the dates they need, the practice can put out an availability request, which goes to locums within a 45 minute travel radius.
You receive an email notification of which practice is looking for cover and you can find more details by logging in to LocumDeck and clicking through to the availability request shown in orange on your LocumDeck calendar.
The practice can specify basic details such as date, start and end times of the cover. They can also add more detailed information about their requirements e.g. they are nudged to specify the type of appointments (triaged, on call, walk in, f2f, telephone etc), typical number of contacts expected, whether admin duties are required and which other members of the healthcare team will be present or whether you’ll be working as a lone clinician.
What does the practice see when I respond to an availability request?
Practices are notified by email that bookable availability has been added for their practice. When they login to LocumDeck they can review the bookable work you are offering, alongside any Credentials and T&Cs you have added, and are able to make an Instant Booking.
Are availability requests made personally to me by a practice?
Not at the moment. Currently, availability requests are sent to all locums on our membership database within range of the practice who wish to receive them. If there is interest from practices and our locum members in allowing practices to be more specific and personal in their requests, we are all ears to feedback.
Will I hear back if the practice does not want to book me after I’ve responded to an AVR by offering Instant Book availability?
No, you won’t hear back directly. But you still have control to offer the practice exclusive bookable availability for a limited period.
GPs can respond to an availability request (AVR) on LocumDeck by offering Instant Book availability. As part of the latest platform update, and in response to GP locum members’ requests, developers on LocumDeck have created a new ‘enhanced’ AVR response.
When you respond to an AVR you can now choose to delete your availability offer, or open your calendars to your other Instant Book practices. Your Instant Book availability will be exclusively offered to the requesting practice for three days. Then, LocumDeck will automatically make the change you chose.
Tip: Availability requests (AVRs) are useful, but they’re not the best way to find work on LocumDeck. The practice will only need to use AVRs if GP locums haven’t already made themselves available. To stand the best chance of getting the session you want, at the rates and terms you choose, we always highly recommend you beat the practice to it and add your availability first, before practices need to post an AVR.
How do I respond to an availability request on LocumDeck?
Respond by going to the Availability request shown in orange on your calendar.
- Click to open the request pop-up and see more information about the practice and whatever information they’ve given you about their cover requirement.
- Click the pale green ellipsis icon in the top right hand corner to see Respond or Decline options
- Decline removes the request from your calendar. The practice is not informed when you decline.
- Respond takes you through some steps to offer an instant bookable session to the practice
- Once you send your offer to the practice, they are notified by email and can login to look at your profile, including your terms and conditions, the session you’re offering and your fee.
- If they book you, you get an SMS text notification, a confirmation email and you’ll be able to see full details of the booking in your calendar.
How do I check that a practice on LocumDeck has received my response to its availability request?
The simplest way to check that a practice on LocumDeck has received my response to its availability request is to wait for a booking.
Practices will make an online booking based on the work you have offered them. If a practice Instant Books you, you are notified by text message and email confirmation, and you can login to see full details in LocumDeck.
Adding, editing and cancelling bookings on LocumDeck
How do I add my own sessions to LocumDeck?
How to add your own bookings
Our setup guide ‘Add your own bookings’ shows you the six steps to adding your own bookings:
1 Set up your profile.
2 Create your own sessions and rates.
3 Add your invoice and pension information.
4 Add your terms and conditions.
5 Add the practices you want to work in.
6 Select a day to start adding a booking.
How to add unconfirmed sessions
How to confirm sessions
You can also record and invoice for non-sessional work using LocumDeck’s “Off-locum work” feature.
How do I set my cancellation policy?
In LocumDeck settings’s T&Cs section, you can generate your own personalised T&Cs using NASGP’s T&Cs picker. This includes a cancellation policy section.
Your T&Cs are linked to every email that is sent to the practice. What’s more, if you are linked with a practice, they can easily access your up-to-date T&Cs via your profile.
How do I cancel a booking on LocumDeck?
Click on the session in your calendar. Then click ‘Edit or cancel booking’. Then via the blue circle with three white dots click Edit or cancel booking
You will be taken to LocumDeck >> Bookings >> Edit or cancel with the relevant session already selected on the right hand side in Session list. Click the dustbin icon next to the session details. ‘Awaiting cancellation’ will appear in red text.
Now you have a choice of two ways of informing the practice, depending on the circumstances of the cancellation:
- “Ask practice to confirm” – Rewinds the confirmed booking to a booking “Awaiting cancellation” in your calendar and the practice’s calendar and sends you both an email of the proposed cancellation. The practice can click a special link within the email to cancel the booking. Or they can confirm the cancellation within LocumDeck.
- “Manually confirm” – Immediately removes the booking from your calendar, the practice’s calendar and sends you both a confirmation email of the cancellation.
How do I edit a session before I work it?
You can reach the Bookings >> Edit/cancel page by clicking on a session in your calendar or via the menu.
- Unconfirmed (cream) sessions are between you and your calendar. As far as LocumDeck knows, the practice has not been sent any notification of these draft sessions so they can be easily deleted with one click from your calendar.
For Confirmed (green) or Confirmation requested (yellow) sessions there are extra steps of informing the practice of the cancellation or change.
- Use the tickboxes to select the session you need to change from the Session details queue on the left – this takes them across to the right hand side, where they can be edited. After editing, you can decide whether to immediately Manually confirm the changes or Ask the practice to confirm them.
TIP: There is handy on-screen help via the ? icons if you need it.
How do I edit a session after I work it?
You can change your sessional fee, add home visit costs and charge for extra time to invoices on LocumDeck.
How do I edit an invoice after I work a session?
When you send an invoice to a practice, the NASGP invoicing system automatically generates a unique invoice number and, if you’re claiming NHS pension, a Locum A form.
From an accountancy point of view, if you have undercharged, it’s fairly straight forward to generate an additional invoice (see below) for the extra amount. If you have overcharged, or need to cancel an invoice then, strictly speaking, you need to update your ‘books’ by issuing a credit note to the practice for the cancelled invoice’s amount which will, equally, update the practice’s accounts books to show that the amount for the outstanding invoice has been covered by the credit note. Nope, they didn’t teach us that during GP training!
Meanwhile, our advice is to:
- Inform the practice as soon as possible that you need to revise the invoice, and ask them how they would prefer you to do this, to keep things as simple for them.
- If you’ve left out certain charges, we suggest you create a new Session type in invoicing settings, specifically for this purpose, and create a session in the same month as the other sessions. This will ensure that the relevant Locum A information is also generated, that will also then be reflected in the relevant Locum B form when the payment is received.
- If you’ve charged too much, please contact us giving as much detail as possible so that we can see if we can resolve this for you.
How do I cancel an invoice after I send it?
This is simple to do on LocumDeck.
- Go to your Invoices >> History
- Open up the invoice details by using the slide down arrow at the end of your invoice’s row
- Click Cancel invoice and follow the on screen help.
The process will vary slightly depending on:
- whether and how you sent the invoice or just saved it to your records
- whether cancelling the invoice will involve breaking the sequence of your invoice numbers.
This is because, legally, invoices are significant documents – they represent your right to charge someone money. So there are two important accounting requirements that have been built into LocumDeck to keep your records in tip-top shape.
- If an invoice has been sent, a credit note should be issued to offset the cancelled invoice in both your and the practice’s accounts.
- Invoice numbering should be sequential.
TIP: You can’t cancel an invoice that has been added to a Locum B form. Once the Locum B form is generated, the invoice’s record is considered complete and becomes locked.
Invoicing and pension forms on LocumDeck
How do I generate a Locum B form?
To start
To be ready to generate Form B, you will first have completed your Invoice & pension info in Settings and have sent invoices with Form As and marked them as paid.
Then:
- Go to Invoices >> Locum Form B
- Select the month to see invoices and Form As that have been marked as paid that month.
- All pensionable invoices that were paid in that month will be displayed.
- Tick the checkboxes next to each invoice to add their payments to the Form B.
- Choose between Generate Form B or Generate e-signed Form A & B
Generate Form B
- If your Form As are still signed by hand by the practice, then Generate Form B will populate your Form B, allowing you to sign the included Form As by hand and send them on, with Form B, to your pension agency.
- Use the Unique payment reference (UPR) on your Form B as your bank payment reference when sending payment.
Generate e-signed Forms A&B
- If your Form As have been e-signed by the practices, then this option will not only generate your Form B, but also process all practice e-signed Locum Form As by:
- adding your e-signature
- merging all e-signed Form As into a single file for easier sending
- alerting you if there are any straggler Form As that have not been e-signed by the practice – their information will be added to the Form B but you’ll need to sign them by hand.
Your completed Form B includes two key pieces of information that you need to submit your pension payments and paperwork:
- The amount of total pension contribution you need to pay
- Unique Payment Reference (UPR) – a code unique to you which contains your pension scheme number and the month of last worked – that you must use as your bank payment reference so the pension administrators can match your payment to your pension record.
See our FAQ in this Help section on “Where do I send my completed pension forms and pension payments?”
Locum Form B tracker
Your Form B and any associated e-signed Form As will be stored in your Locum Form B Tracker. You can:
- Reverse a Form B up to two weeks after it is generated to amend any errors – click grey cross
- Add notes on any PCSE reference numbers or payment methods
Following changes to the guidance on how to complete Form B and how to use UPR, from 1 Oct 2022, the name of the new form B in ‘Your Locum Form B Tracker’ will reference the month of the last date of work on the Form to be consistent with the UPR on your Form B.
Why isn’t my electronic signature on my Locum Form A?
LocumDeck adds your signature to all Form As that have been e-signed by the practices at the point that you request LocumDeck to generate your e-signed Form B.
At the same time, your Locum Form B is stamped with the UPR and all e-signed Form As are merged into one file for easier sending.
Form A is your claim to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) to pension work performed at a specific practice for that month, so your signature to authenticate your claim needs to be added to Form A before you submit it to NHSBSA. It is not necessary for your signature to be on Form A before you send it to the practice.
What is e-signing?
An e-signature (electric signature) is a ‘mouse’ or ‘stylus’ signature. It does not need to match your usual ‘wet’ or ‘pen’ signature, although you can set this up.
LocumDeck enables e-signatures, which means all Form A and B paperwork can be done digitally.
How to e-sign forms on LocumDeck
E-signing works when you are linked with a practice. Certain information relating to your bookings and invoices are shared with them, including instant sharing of your invoices and any Locum Form As. In return, the linked practice can e-sign your Form A and confirm they have sent payment in a couple of clicks, and this is instantly shared on your All Invoices.
It’s all designed with on-board help to make it as easy and straightforward as possible. Here it is broken down into three steps.
- Add your electronic signature. Go to your LocumDeck >> Settings >> My invoice & pension info to add your electronic signature. You can recreate your signature using mouse, or some find it easier to use a tablet or smartphone and signing with your finger or a stylus.
- Send your invoice and Locum Form A in the usual way. No signature is added at this stage as this is not needed when you send your Form A to the practice.
- E-sign by practice. The practice gets an email notification of your invoice and are told that if they login to LocumDeck they can e-sign your Form A. The practice manager is led through setting up their electronic signature. They only have to do this once, and then for each subsequent Form A, they are asked to certify your work and pensionable pay, add the GP you were covering for and the date and method of payment.
TIP: Verified NHS email accounts. We only add signatures to Form A after they’ve been signed by the practice manager, and the practice manager can only have a LocumDeck account if they have verified their NHS email address. PCSE are then perfectly happy that the form has been through at least one verified NHS email account.
How does a practice e-sign Locum Form A?
After you have completed Locum Form A for sessions at a practice, send it to the practice manager to sign or e-sign, then sign it yourself and file it to PCSE for processing.
How do GPs invoice for sessional work on LocumDeck?
A locum session becomes ‘ready for invoicing’ once it is underway – it then appears as pale blue in your calendar.
- Invoice session by clicking the session on your calendar and using the menu (blue circle with three white dots) or via Invoices >> Create invoice. On Create invoice, the “Select practice” dropdown will show you all your practices that need to be invoiced.
- Select a practice to see a list of sessions that are ready for invoicing.
- When you tick the sessions you want to invoice, you will see the invoice preview, complete with automatic pension calculations, appear on the right hand side.
- Either: Hit SEND and the invoice and any attached Locum Form A will be emailed to the practice and become viewable online in their LocumDeck. Or: Hit SAVE and EXIT to save the invoice (and any Locum Form A) to ‘All invoices’ without sharing with the practice.
In both cases, your invoice details and any pension contribution are automatically saved in Bookkeeper.
Can I invoice on LocumDeck for sessional GP work booked off LocumDeck?
Yes, you can invoice for work on LocumDeck for work booked outside of LocumDeck.
- Add the practice to your LocumDeck address book (it’s called “My practices”).
- Add your sessions at that practice into your LocumDeck calendar.
- After you work your session, create and send an invoice in the usual way. (If you claim NHS pension on this session, LocumDeck will also generate a Locum Form A and update your Bookkeeper data).
If you have already invoiced a practice outside of LocumDeck, but want to record it within Bookkeeper, then instead of pressing the SEND button, leave the sessions as “ready for invoice” on the calendar. Bookkeeper will pick up the fee and include it in your earnings.
When should I send invoices for locum work?
Whenever and as often as you like. There are no rules. Some invoice at end of month, others bi-weekly. But it’s probably more important to build a habit of regular invoicing and pension admin that fits your work routine.
Our experience is that most locums invoice at the end of the month.
One time-limit to be aware of with invoicing is that you cannot pension work that was carried out more than 10 weeks ago.
Can I print my invoice?
Yes – from ‘All invoices’, click VIEW to access a downloadable PDF file of the invoice. Practices can also download or print invoices from their LocumDeck account by clicking on the invoice number/reference.
How do I invoice for non-sessional work on LocumDeck?
LocumDeck’s ‘off-locum work’ feature allows you to add non-sessional work.
Non-sessional work includes:
- Private work.
- Lecturing.
- Writing
- Speaking.
- Appraisal.
Invoices, and if applicable, Locum Form A and B, can also be generated for ‘off-locum work’ sessions booked into your calendar.
Any fees for this work will be shown in the Other fees area in Bookkeeper.
Can I print my invoice?
Yes – from ‘All invoices’, click VIEW to access a downloadable PDF file of the invoice.
Where do I send my completed pension forms and pension payments?
England
Locum Form A and Form B can be submitted in any of three ways:
- PCSE contact form
- PCSE Online web portal
- LocumDeck
1. PCSE contact form
- Pay by Bacs. The bank account details you require can be obtained by calling PCSE on 0333 014 2884.
- Submit electronically via the PCSE contacts form.
-
- Select “Type of enquiry” = GP pensions
- “GMC code” = your GMC number (leave “Practice code” blank)
- “BACS reference code” = Unique Payment Reference (UPR)
- Ensure that all your pension forms include the Unique Payment Reference based on your SD number. If your paperwork does not contain this reference, your pension payment will not be processed.
2. PCSE Online
NB NASGP currently recommends using the above alternatives to PCSE Online until significant issues have been addressed.
PCSE online does not (yet) allow:
1. Generation of more than one Form B per month;
2. Archive of paper copies: “Always keep copies of all your GP locum pension forms.” – NHS Form B notes.
3. Additional Pension (AP) contributions to be made.
NASGP members have also expressed concern over missing information that they have submitted through PCSE Online, frequent system crashes, with data being lost and difficulties in getting Form A approved by practice managers on the system (the equivalent of the practice ‘signing Form A’). And see the BMA’s growing list of complaints about PCSE’s portal.
If you do wish to use PCSE Online, login here to the ‘Locum Work’ part of PCSE Online.
3. LocumDeck
Although PCSE have provided the capability for Form A/B to be automated through LocumDeck, we are unable to commit this to going live until PCSE have fixed issues relating to the submission of more than one Form B per month, missing data, ‘Row J’, Additional Pension contributions etc. As soon as this is ready, we will inform all members straight away!
Please note, as of 2024 we understand the ‘by post’ option no longer exists.
Wales
Send your completed forms and payment to your relevant Local Health Board. GP-one Wales maintains a partial list of the 7 Health Boards with their pension contacts for GP locums.
Scotland
Send your completed forms and cheque to NHS National Services Scotland to the Practitioner Services Office of your host Health Board. Unfortunately LocumDeck does not currently support Scottish GP pension forms.
Northern Ireland
- Send your completed forms and cheque to HSC Pension Service.
- Email contact for locum pension enquiries is gplocums@hscni.net
Calendar settings
How do I sync LocumDeck bookings to my device calendar?
It’s easy to synchronise your LocumDeck calendar to your devices.
How to add LocumDeck calendar to Google Calendar (all devices)
- Go to your LocumDeck Calendar on a PC/Mac and click on the download icon (next to ‘KEY’) at the top right of the calendar.
- A URL will appear that looks like ‘webcal://www.nasgp.org.uk/espip/calendar/o3DqSFeJ2HvhOT…’
- In Chrome, signed in, your Google calendar should open up and ask you to add direct to your Calendar.
- Click ‘Add’.
If you’re not in Chrome, or this doesn’t happen, copy the URL that appears and, in your Google calendar, go to Settings > Add calendar > From URL and just follow the instructions.
TIP: Assuming you’ve already set up your Google account on all your devices, make sure that you’ve set your new LocumDeck calendar to display on all your devices.
How to add your LocumDeck calendar to one device
- Login to your LocumDeck on your chosen device.
- Go to your LocumDeck Calendar.
- Click on the download icon (next to ‘KEY’) at the top right of calendar
- You will be asked if you want to ‘subscribe to the calendar’. Agree.
Your subscribed calendar will be named ‘NASGP – Your name’.
TIP: If you also want your LocumDeck calendar to show on another device e.g. your tablet or smartphone, you’ll need to log in from that device and repeat the same procedure.
How to remove your LocumDeck calendar
- Open up whatever app or calendar it is you’re viewing your synchronised information on (for example Outlook, Apple Calendar, Google Calendar) and remove the subscribed calendar.
- Alternatively, go to the devices system Settings > Calendar/Accounts on your devices.
Troubleshooting advice
Such is the variability between devices (smartphones, tablets, PCs, Macs), operating systems (Windows, iOS, Android, Apple OS) and calendar apps (Outlook, Google Calendar, Timepage) that a definitive guide to troubleshooting would probably stretch from here to the moon!
But our experience is that and synching issues with your device’s calendar can be sorted by deleting the ‘Shared Calendar’ account from your device, rebooting your device, making a cup of tea, and re-adding again from LocumDeck
e.g. for iPhone:
- Settings >> Calendar >> Accounts >> Subscribed Calendars >> Name of Calendar >> Delete Account
For PC/Mac:
- Calendar app >> Accounts >> Subscribed Calendars >> Name of Calendar >> Delete Account (or similar variant there of)
Please remember that you need to set up the calendar on each device and check on your device that your LocumDeck calendar is selected to be shown.
How to ensure your device’s calendar gets updated regularly
Behind the scenes, your smartphone, tablet or PC has subscribed to a unique webcal link that enables your device to access your LocumDeck calendar from the cloud. As with any subscribed calendar service, the frequency with which your device is able to do this depends on a few factors e.g. the quality of your wifi/internet or data connection, how powered up your device is, and how often your device is set to fetch your calendar data.
Please check your device’s settings to ensure that it is set to fetch data at a suitable interval.
Read more advice on syncing with iPhones, PC calendars and Outlook.
What GP locums say about using LocumDeck to book and manage sessional work
"Joining NASGP's Locum Chambers in Essex after CCT has been a fantastic decision for me. The Chambers structure provides support with my locum work as well as a peer support network with regular meetings.
The Chambers support also extends to support with complaints when these occur. This is an amazing benefit that helps to minimise the professional isolation that can come with being a locum.
The Instant Book feature within LocumDeck makes arranging sessions easy. Whilst getting things set up initially does take a bit of work, this eventually pays off and the return on this initial time investment is impressive. New features are always being added based on feedback from members. "
Dr Shanil Shivji, GP, Essex
"As a newly-qualified CCT and a GP moving to a new region post-CCT, I found LocumDeck and the NASGP to be very helpful. LocumDeck has been useful: Ali Lewis helped me to set myself up, get in touch with practices and book sessions, and also helped me chase payments. The NASGP itself, providing peer support and advice, has also been very good. I would certainly encourage my colleagues to join."
Dr Smita Sharma, GP, Hertfordshire