Image above: Red Kangaroo. Tamworth Marsupial Park
Hello everyone,
I hope you all had a good break during the holiday season.
It has been a while since I have posted anything on my blog. The last 12 months were a flurry of activity that has thankfully slowed down.
I spent the bulk of 2024 doing locums around various locations in Australia. It is truly an eye opening experience for myself that I thought I would share with you.
At the end of last year, I decided that I needed a break from GP work. My wife and I were living apart for the better of 3 years due to work and we were focusing on being together again. In all honesty, I felt run down by not just my work but from the drama with my PR application, my wife’s AMC part 2 exam (which she passed), social isolation of being alone in regional Australia and the hoops I had to jump just to be eligibile to sit for my GP exam. Don’t get me wrong, my ex-bosses were wonderful people who were supportive of my decision and I think the world of them, but mentally and emotionally I was spent. My wife and I needed a break from the grind and decided to take up locum shifts. We both had general registration with AHPRA and full working rights in Australia. This was one of the main reasons why I wanted to complete the AMC standard pathway as it would allow me to do locum work outside of GP work.
So, in Australia, there are locum agencies that help advertise locum slots for doctors for various disciplines and career levels (i.e. from RMOs, Registrars, PHOs, Senior medical officer, Specialists etc). You have to sign up to these agencies and they will run a gauntlet of credentialing paperwork to get you started. The main purpose is for the agents to get to know your scope of practice and experience in order to suggest positions best suited for you. You apply for the job advertised and the Health Workforce of the hospital would then decide if they want to hire you or not. The pay is higher than a person working full time and they do cover travel and accomodation.
For my wife, who did 12 months of Emergency Medicine, she had no problem finding locum slots. She also managed to do a few ICU jobs as she had years of experience back in Malaysia.
In contrast, I had difficulty securing a slot due to my lack of hospital recency. From 2020 till 2024 I was working as a GP. Thankfully, a cancellation occured and I was offered the last minute vacancy in a rural part of Victoria. The position was a general medicine RMO for 3 days and to reach the hospital I had to cross the Great Alpine Drive which I can say with all honesty was nerve wrecking and I would not do it again. This however, opened doors for me to apply for Emergency Medicine slots. There are plenty of overlaps between GP and Emergency Medicine, and I had a decent amount of experience in the former under my belt for the hospitals to confidently hire me. I took up roles as a GP registrar and SRMO in various regional hospitals.
Despite having more roles in ED, it was not enough to get by. I am grateful for a Malaysian friend of mine who introduced a company that offers skin cancer screening sessions for corporate companies. This suited me as I have practical experience in managing skin cancer in my GP practice in addition to having Professional Diploma in Dermoscopy and Skin Cancer Medicine. The job was straighforward, I used my dermatoscope to examine skin lesions that appeared suspicious and write my recommendations i.e. advice for biopsy, mole mapping etc.
The locum jobs took me to see different parts of Australia. I saw the sea side with its surrounding green lush, warm and humid environment in Northern Queensland, I explored the dry, arid desert landscape of Western Victoria and South Australia, the metropolitan regions of Sydney and Melbourne. The best part was that the jobs took between 3-7 days (excluding travel time) and I was back home with my wife to enjoy the time off. I could have done more locum slots, but I had enough to get by and set aside some money for savings. I work an average of 10-15 days a month and was earning almost as much as I would have when I worked full time, minus taxes. I applied for online and face to face courses to help boost my CV for hospitals to hire me. The courses were really helpful in improving my knowledge and confidence to work in ED.
Now, its not all sunshine and rainbows. There are downsides of locuming. You are dependent on the availability of the slots. Some spots get snatched up as soon as they are advertised. The remaining shifts are in areas where no one really wants to go. The travelling can also get to you, honestly, I have been in so many flights that the thought of going on a plane makes me airsick already. You will be living out of a suitcase in hotel rooms that depending on your luck can be a hit or miss. Imagine trying to sleep in a drafty hotel without proper heating in the middle of a bitter South Australia winter, getting up early to go to your work place and after that driving to the next location 3 hours away. Your diet would also go out of whack, having to rely on Uber Eats and take outs*. Another downside is you, as an independent contractor, would not get the benefits of an employee. That is no superannuation, no sick leave, no formal learning. You are just there to do the job and go back home. If the hospital likes you, they will invite you back for more sessions.
*On a side note, when I travel, I bring along a rice cooker, chopping board, cooking knife with the basic seasoning (soy sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, salt, white pepper) and just cook vegetarian dishes in my hotel room. The purpose of this is to eat healthy and save on cash.*
Finally, another disadvantage of locuming is that your career would not go anywhere. Not many hospitals are interested in providing learning for locum staff. You may get informal teaching from the specialist but most of the time you are by yourself. Unless you have the skills to be a senior registrar, senior medical officer or specialist, your pay and position would remain the same without any further training.
In summary, locuming is great as a stop gap measure to earn money. You don’t need to be a specialist to be able to earn enough to have a comfortable living, however you would also want to consider where you are in your career too. The purpose why I chose to do locum may not be the same as yours. I chose it because I was burnt out and wanted a change in my work and I am grateful I got to experience it this year. Nevertheless, I feel that I am ready to go back into my GP training and skin cancer studies.
Malaysian Doctor Down Under 