For pharmacy owners
Locum pharmacist cover for pharmacy owners.
A pharmacy without a pharmacist does not open. A permanent vacancy is a slow bleed. A locum gap is a closed door, a lost day’s trade and a script file that walks down the road. We cover metro, regional and remote stores.
What we cover
Single days to long blocks.
Planned leave
Annual leave, conference and CPD absence, parental leave and long service.
Short notice
Illness, a resignation without notice, a PIC who has walked.
Block bookings
A run of weeks while you recruit permanently, rather than a scramble every Monday.
Pharmacist in Charge cover
Where the role carries responsibility beyond dispensing.
Regional and remote
Including where travel and accommodation have to be part of the arrangement.
Cancel inside 48 hours
Plans change. Cancel up to 48 hours before the shift and there is no charge.
Regional cover
Why regional cover is harder, and what fixes it.
Metropolitan cover is a scheduling problem. Regional cover is a persuasion problem.
The pool of pharmacists who will genuinely travel is far smaller than the pool advertising themselves as available, and the difference only shows when you need someone in Parkes on a Tuesday.
What works is knowing the individual pharmacists who actually do it — who will drive four hours, who wants the block rather than the single day, who has covered a similar store before and will go back. That is a relationship, not a database query. It is why we do not publish a headline number of “available locums”: the number that matters is how many will say yes to your store, on your dates.
What it costs
Two numbers, not one.
You are always quoted two numbers. Keep them apart.
- The pharmacist’s rate
- What the locum is paid. It moves with notice, location, day of the week, PIC responsibility and travel. A pharmacist giving up a Saturday at two days’ notice to drive somewhere is entitled to be paid for it.
- The agency’s fee
- What the agency takes on top. This is the number you can actually compare — and the one most will not separate out for you.
We quote the rate and our fee separately, in writing, before you commit. Expect that from any agency you deal with. Indicative locum rates for 2026.
Booking
Three steps, and a fast no if it is a no.
Tell us the gap
Store, dates, hours, whether it is PIC, and anything about the store a locum should know before they say yes.
We come back with who is genuinely available
With their rate and any travel costs itemised.
You confirm, we handle the rest
The arrangements with the pharmacist are ours to run.
If we cannot cover it, we say so quickly. Most of the damage in a locum failure is done in the days you spent believing it was handled.
Why owners use us
Operators, not a call centre.
We run pharmacies ourselves
Our people manage a national network of community pharmacies day to day. We have been the person on the phone at 7am with no pharmacist.
Converting is not penalised
Our permanent fee is fixed, not a percentage — so when a locum turns out to be the right permanent hire, converting them does not trigger a bill based on what you agree to pay them.
Regional reach that is real
A large share of our placements are country practices.
We do not send someone just to fill the booking
A locum who is a poor fit for a small regional store costs you more than the empty day did.
Rural store? See what rural pharmacies can claim toward staffing. Pharmacist looking for locum work? Locum jobs are here.
Next step
Tell us the store and the dates.
We will tell you straight away whether we can cover it — with the pharmacist’s rate and our fee as two separate numbers.