Clinical handover is considered by both the SOLS Management Group and Advisory Committee to be an essential factor for an obstetrician employing a locum.
Clinicians have a duty of care to ensure efective handover; this has been shown to reduce errors, avoid costly duplication of investigations and most importantly, reduce patient errors.
The formal SOLS Handover Guidelines, sent to all SOLS applicants prior to the locum arriving, may seem daunting, but assistance could be obtained from the practice manager or nurse, partner or the hospital administration. It only has to be completely illed in before the irst locum; with few changes required for subsequent locums.
The applicant needs to ensure that the locum has a comprehensive Clinical Handover, for example a print out of current hospital patients and access to current patient iles, particularly for high risk patients and those in hospital.
At the conclusion of the locum, handback handover is also critical; it is not adequate to consider the applicant knows the patient. Good handover does take efort, but is worthwhile and is essential for patient safety.
Pieter Mourik
Chair SOLS
Advisory Committee
In July 2011, RANZCOG Council approved the 
WPI 19 Clinical Handover (65.65 kB)
