Dr. Aine Burke:

I work in the north west. My hospital and other local hospitals are routinely staffed with locums. I do not want anyone thinking that locums do not provide good quality care at the coalface. At the moment, they are plugging a necessary gap.

However, the Chairman is correct that the biggest deficit we have is in the continuity of care for individual patients. If one has not met a patient in clinic before, one is less likely to discharge them and more than likely to bring them back in six months. This is because one does not really know them and not entirely sure if something might have been missed. The next locum comes along and something similar happens. This speaks to the efficiencies within the service.

I took up a post as a permanent consultant several years ago. I do my day-to-day job but I also sit on several hospital committees. A temporary appointment in a hospital will not take on such roles, however. They will not get involved in drugs, therapeutics, policy-making decisions, clinical protocols, etc. Those are the matters which really make a difference on a systemic level. Locums can look after individual patients but it is not a way to run a service.