LOCUMS FOR PHARMACISTS

1. What is a locum?

Someone (physician or pharmacy personnel) who substitutes temporarily for another member of the same profession.

Locums in South Africa are very common in the profession of pharmacy. All pharmacy personnel do locums in order to add an extra weight to their income. 

2. Who are allowed to do locums?

1. Responsible pharmacists

2. Pharmacists

3. Pharmacist community service personnel

4. Pharmacist assistants

5. Pharmacy students (who have at least completed 1 year of their course of study)

3. How much do they earn?

Well, it entirely depends on the individual pharmacy, there is no particular ball-point figure how much can they pull in. It is upto them to decide how much to offer. But generally speaking, they offer a very decent amount which varies depending on the size and popularity of that individual pharmacy.

On a general note, here I am providing the estimated amounts that each pharmacy personnel can bring in,

·        Responsible pharmacists à 220R to 350R per hour

·        Pharmacists à 180R to 250R per hour

·        Pharmacist community service personnel à 150R to 200R per hour

·        Pharmacist assistants à 120R to 150R per hour

·        Pharmacy students à 30R to 120R per hour

4. What do they do at locums?

ü  As a pharmacist, if you are offered a locum, you need to take responsibility of the whole pharmacy.

ü  You need to have a little computer knowledge as most patients buy their medication using a medical aid that you need to work out on the system.

ü  You need to be very patient as there will be a huge number of patients and the time will be crushing you out.

ü  You sometimes need to council the patients if needed.

ü  You should know your generics very well as most of the patients ask for low priced medications.

ü  You are supposed to manage your staff and balance the amount of time you spend on each patient.

ü  Most importantly you need to learn softwares like UNISOLVE and PROPHARM, on which most of the pharmacies in South Africa work on.

ü  You obviously need to have good communication skills as most of the patients have less patience, and if you lack communication skills they’ll get on your nerve.

ü  A patient smile to the patient will solve all the troubles.

There are many agencies in South Africa that’ll help you find locums very easily using social networking sites and through many other channels, here is the list of few agencies that might help you finding locums,

5. Links for agencies websites: ( copy and paste the URLs)

1.     www.indeed.co.za/Locum-Pharmacist-jobs

2.     www.careerjet.co.za › South Africa jobs

3.     66.7.215.46/~salocums/cms

4.     durban.olx.co.za › Jobs › Healthcare Jobs (only in Durban)

5.     http://www.gumtree.co.za/f-pharmacist-locum-Classifieds-W0QQKeywordZpharmacistQ20locum

6.     www.joblife.co.za › Pharmacist Assistant Locum Jobs

7.     http://za.simplyhired.com/a/jobs/list/q-locum+pharmacist

8.     www.jobisjob.co.za/locum+pharmacist/jobs