LocumDeck FAQs for practice managers

Once your practice is added to LocumDeck, you become visible to GP locums on LocumDeck.

• Usually, when your practice Superadmin first signs up, they will add your practice to LocumDeck by going to Account >> My practices, adding required information (e.g. about your practice’s clinical IT system) and confirming when the practice is ready to add to LocumDeck

Another great way to get noticed by locums and encourage them to offer bookable availability is to use Request availability (see below)

Yes you can.

• By using Request availability (see below)

• You can also invite any of your named locum colleagues who aren’t yet on LocumDeck:
  • Go to Invite locums in your LocumDeck menu.

Clicking on the locum’s name wherever it appears in LocumDeck will allow you to easily review their essential credentials and terms:

• At the top of the locum’s profile, click on the GMC number to go directly to their record on the GMC register, allowing you to confirm they are licensed to practice and on the GP register.
• Click on VIEW PERFORMERS LIST to directly view the locum’s performers list status.
• Go to the Credentials tab to see other important compliance documentation and useful information that the locum has provided to inform your booking decision.

Please note that the practice is responsible for checking the credentials and suitability of the GP before engaging them. LocumDeck is an automated platform that facilitates your direct engagement with locums, allowing you to build sustainable relationships with local, flexible GPs. NASGP cannot and does not carry out checks of the GP locums who use LocumDeck.

Locums who are part of a Locum Chambers have an extra layer of clinical governance processes around them. Their full credentials are checked on joining the Chambers and they are part of a team who meet regularly and are supported by a clinical governance framework. However, Chambers locums remain self-employed individuals making a booking directly with your practice. Practices are provided with transparent, easy-access information about the doctor’s credentials so that practices can also ensure that the doctor is suitable for their practice.

Booking remote GP locums on LocumDeck is free for practices. Practices only pay the GP locum’s fee – nothing more.

No. There’s no need for you to download software or supply a laptop. Simply authorise the GP’s NHS smartcard to securely connect them to the NHS HSCN spine and provide access to the full clinical desktop remotely.

Following a successful 3,000-session NHS pilot in Devon ICB with GPintheCloud and LocumDeck, over 200 GPs are now available on LocumDeck to provide remote work.

Emis practices

From 21 June 2023, register from your LocumDeck Dashboard.

SystmOne practices

Please complete this form. Your signed Data Protection Agreement, please save a copy. If required, use the provided pre-filled Data Protection Impact Assessment for your own internal purposes.

Other providers

Please contact info@nasgp.org.uk.

Your practice simply needs to take all the usual steps that it usually takes to set up a regular face-to-face GP, such as activating their NHS smartcard with your Emis or SystmOne clinical system. Follow the clinical systems setup steps provided.

On the day, the GP locum logs in to GPintheCloud from their own device, which then provides the GP locum with a list of practices that have enabled that locum to work for them via the GP locum’s smartcard.

No – all our GP locums log in to GPintheCloud with their NHSmail address.

GPintheCloud then automatically gives the locum access to Windows and Microsoft Office accounts.

You don’t! GPintheCloud provides the entire remote infrastructure for the GP locum to connect to the NHS HSCN ‘spine’. Because you will have authorised the GP locum’s smartcard within your practice’s Emis or SystmOne, GPintheCloud will connect the GP locum to your practice, and allow them to log in from their own device.

The GP locum provides their own smartcard reader and laptop.

Practices must ensure all appointments booked with a remote GP have been assessed as suitable for a routine remote appointment.

NASGP recommends someone at the practice call the remote GP locum before every session, covering four key points:

1. Any staff who are unavailable.
2. Changes to local referral pathways.
3. How busy the practice is today.
4. Name of the duty doctor and their direct dial.

Then ask the GP locum to call the practice after their session to raise issues, give feedback and ask questions.

Access to local pathology request services may be blocked by your local lab’s IT system. These can be unblocked by asking the pathology provider to whitelist the following IP addresses that GPintheCloud uses:

• 10.104.24.226 – Primary
• 10.104.24.98 – Secondary

If your practice or organisation’s information governance requires a DPIA for this service, we have already prefilled a Microsoft Word version for you to adapt as necessary and adopt for your own internal policy. You do not need to share it with either NASGP/LocumDeck of GPintheCloud.

• One of the practice Superadmins has to Activate instant book setting in Account >> My practices
• Once that’s done, Superadmins and Booking contacts can start booking
• Locums offering bookable availability show in red on your booking calendar
• Click on a locum’s name to open their profiles.
• Review the locum’s credentials and terms, including their fee.
• Click Add to reserve a session to your Reserved List.
• When you’re ready to place a booking, go to your Reserved List (top right of your Make a booking screen) and click MAKE INSTANT BOOKING.
• This completes and confirms the booking – the locum is sent a text message and you both get confirmation emails and details of the confirmed booking in your calendars.

Clicking on the locum’s name wherever it appears in LocumDeck will allow you to check their essential credentials and terms:

• Click on the locum’s registration number to go directly to their record on the GMC register, allowing you to confirm they are licensed to practice and on the GP register.
• Click on VIEW PERFORMERS LIST to directly view the locum’s performers list status.
• Go to the Credentials tab to see other important compliance documentation and useful information that the locum has provided to inform your booking decision.

Please note that the practice is responsible for checking the credentials and suitability of the GP before engaging them. LocumDeck is an automated platform that facilitates your direct engagement with locums, allowing you to build sustainable relationships with local, flexible GPs. NASGP cannot and does not carry out checks of the GP locums who use LocumDeck.

Locums who are part of a Locum Chambers have an extra layer of clinical governance processes around them. Their full credentials are checked on joining the Chambers and they are part of a team who meet regularly and are supported by a clinical governance framework. However, Chambers locums remain self-employed individuals making a booking directly with your practice. Practices are provided with transparent, easy-access information about the doctor’s credentials so that practices can also ensure that the doctor is suitable for their practice.

All bookings on LocumDeck, made by whatever route, are direct engagements between the practice and the GP locum. Therefore, if you need to cancel a booking, please contact the GP locum directly.

For individual freelance locums

• Contact details for the GP locum will be on all confirmation bookings emails and invoices. GP locums may also occasionally choose to share their contact details in their LocumDeck profiles.
• The GP locum’s own cancellation policy, specified in their individual Terms and Conditions, will apply.

For locums in a Locum Chambers

• Please contact the Chambers – contact details of the Chambers including phone and email are provided on your LocumDeck booking calendar and withi the profile of each Chambers locum.
• The Locum Chambers cancellation policy, specified under Terms & Conditions in the locum’s profile, will apply.

Once the GP locum or their Chambers has been informed of the cancellation, they can proceed with the cancellation from their LocumDeck.

In under 9 minutes, get a reminder on how to set up Instant Book, see a live demo of an Instant Book from the practice and locum perspective and find out about the Search filters and date range search.

Once GP locums have linked with you on LocumDeck you will be able to see their bookable availability and any booked sessions you have with them on the calendar. You can click any of the calendar entries to see full details.

For easy reference, sessions of different status are colour-coded:

• Green for Confirmed sessions.
• Yellow for Confirmation request sessions the GP locum has offered you that are awaiting your confirmation.
• Red for ‘Bookable Availability’ that the locum is offering for Instant Book.
• Blue for sessions on the Invoice and payment journey

GP locums have to opt to link with you on LocumDeck by adding your practice to their personal address book before they are visible on your calendar. If your calendar is empty, it means that no GP locums have yet linked with your practice.

This is not unusual if a practice has only recently become visible to locums on LocumDeck. Using Request availability (see above) and Invite locums to let your named, known locums know you’re on LocumDeck, can both help attract locums to link with you.

Top tips – if you see an empty calendar and you have branch surgeries, make sure you toggle between all your sites using the selector box – they will each have their separate calendar which will individually display availability and bookings.

Bookings on LocumDeck are direct engagements between the practice and GP locum. Therefore invoices are sent by the GP locum directly to the practice. Payment is made directly by the practice to the GP locum as per the payment terms contained on their customised invoice.

When a GP locum generates an invoice, the practice manager and invoicing contact get an email notification with the details of the work being charged for within the email and, if the locum is pensioning the work, the form A will be attached as a PDF.

You also have within LocumDeck an Invoices area which helps you keep a track of all your invoicing and payment activity for all your locums.

• Go to LocumDeck >> Invoices.
• In the Status column click the down arrow to show details of the invoice and some actions.
• If there is no accompanying Locum Form A pension form, you can click Mark as payment sent
• If there is a Locum Form A, you have the option of
  • quick e-signing and marking as payment sent in one step
  • Downloading and manually completing the form and separately mark as payment sent.

This automatically updates the locum’s invoice record so they know to look out for your payment.

Once they receive payment, they can mark the invoice as ‘Payment received’

If you’re using Instant Booking these bookings are made and confirmed in one step when you finalise and click MAKE INSTANT BOOKING.

If you’re making bookings using the traditional route of contacting the locum directly, you may get yellow ‘Confirmation requested’ sessions appearing in your calendar along with emails to your booking contacts, asking you to “Please confirm these locum GP sessions”.

This means the locum has added these session details to their calendar and is asking you to review and confirm the booking.

If you want to confirm the sessions, you can do this either from the blue confirmation link within the “Please confirm these locum GP sessions” email.

Or online within LocumDeck

1. Open the session details by clicking on the yellow session on your calendar
2. Click the blue tick icon at the end of the session detail line. This will take you to your Confirm bookings page.
3. Use the white tickbox next to select the relevant Booking
4. Finally click the green Confirm button. The booking is now confirmed. Confirmation emails are sent to both practice and locum and your calendars are both updated.

If you don’t want to confirm the booking or need to make changes, then please contact the GP locum directly. One option is to do this by replying to the “Please confirm these locum GP sessions” email.

Use ‘Request availability‘ to add your required dates, times and details of the cover you need. To access ‘Request availability’, click on any date in your calendar or navigate to ‘Request availability’ in the menu bar on LocumDeck.

After you’ve built a list of your requirements and clicked SEND AVAILABILITY REQUEST:

• Email notifications are sent out to locums in a 45 min travel radius of your practice.
• Your Availability request details are added to their calendars.
• You get a record of your availability request in your calendar (shown in orange)

You will be notified by email when a locum responds and adds availability for your practice to book.

You are not committed to making any booking after you’ve requested availability. You remain in control of determining whether any suitable cover is offered and whether you want to make a booking.

If you later decide you no longer need a GP locum you can delete the availability request from your calendar by clicking on the request and using the ‘dustbin’ icon.

The Superadmin role is the only role with the authority to invite practice staff to your practice’s LocumDeck account.

A Superadmin can invite other staff members as follows:

• Login to LocumDeck.
• Go to Account >> My practices
• Use the down arrow to expand the details of the contact type you’d like to add e.g. Booking contact or Invoicing contact
• Click the ‘ADD NEW’ button to add the name and email of the staff member
• Use the tickbox to set whether you want to allow this contact to have login access to this practice’s LocumDeck account.*

*It is advisable to allow your staff login access if you want your practice to get the most from LocumDeck e.g. view bookings, make bookings, Request availability and e-sign pension forms.

Leaving staff without login access means they will only get relevant booking and invoice emails from locums.

The ‘non-login’ option is included for circumstances where you may have a third-party accounts centre that accepts your locum invoices by email but you do not wish the centre to have full access to your practice’s account.

You can add multiple practice staff members to help manage your practice’s LocumDeck account. There are three types of practice user role on LocumDeck:

• Superadmin role has authority to
  • invite other practice staff to access your practice’s LocumDeck account
  • set up linked practices
  • accept the terms of LocumDeck and instant book on behalf of the practice
  • fully manage all tasks associated with locum booking and invoicing.
• Booking contact can manage all the tasks associated with locum booking and invoicing if the contact is given login access
  • Make instant bookings
  • Request availability
  • Manage invoices and pension forms
• Invoicing contact is restricted to managing invoices and processing pension forms
  • Can view bookings and locum terms to facilitate managing invoicing
  • But cannot make bookings or Request availability

You can have multiple practice staff in any of the three LocumDeck roles.

LocumDeck is a flexible tool that facilitates your direct interaction with GP locums. It is not ‘just’ a booking platform or a job marketplace. It’s more of a complete locum management system. So you can use it to help manage bookings on several levels, depending on your preference and the locum you’re dealing with

• At its simplest, you get clear calendar and summaries of past and upcoming bookings and invoices with all your locums.
• Smart, quick confirmation system if making bookings in the traditional way, giving you both an audit trail of work agreed.
• At its most sophisticated, there is Instant Book.

Yes!

If you have an established network of GP locums and you all prefer to continue using the traditional reactive route of making bookings then LocumDeck is great at helping you keep a track of your sessions and invoices.

Here’s how:

• Let your GPs know you’d like to use LocumDeck – you can use Invite locums – urge them to sign up as they’ll get a “really brilliant” (according to our members!)  suite of automated invoicing, pensioning and Bookkeeper tools as part of their NASGP membership fee – currently for just £12 a month.
• The locums add any work you agree with them, and if they use LocumDeck’s confirmation system, you will both get booking and invoicing emails and a live summary of bookings and invoices – for all your locums.

All bookings on LocumDeck, made by whatever route, are direct engagements between the practice and the GP locum. Therefore, if you need to cancel a booking, please contact the GP locum directly.

For individual freelance locums

• Contact details for the GP locum will be on all confirmation bookings emails and invoices. GP locums may also occasionally choose to share their contact details in their LocumDeck profiles.
• The GP locum’s own cancellation policy, specified in their individual Terms and Conditions, will apply.

For locums in a Locum Chambers

• Please contact the Chambers – contact details of the Chambers including phone and email are provided on your LocumDeck booking calendar and withi the profile of each Chambers locum.
• The Locum Chambers cancellation policy, specified under Terms & Conditions in the locum’s profile, will apply.

Once the GP locum or their Chambers has been informed of the cancellation, they can proceed with the cancellation from their LocumDeck.