Write a locum booking brief and a practice handover sheet from your own systems and your GOC register checks

The GOC's 2025 survey found that 82% of optical businesses had used locums at least occasionally in the last year. A locum arriving at an unfamiliar practice needs the basics: how the diary and systems work, where the equipment is, where the complaints policy is and who has overall clinical responsibility. The GOC says the business should give locums access to its complaints policies and make sure staff who delegate or supervise clinical tasks know who retains overall clinical responsibility. AI can lay out a booking brief and a handover sheet from your facts. It never writes clinical protocols, and the GOC register checks are yours to do on the GOC site, not the agency's.

A free AI chat tool, then your own word processor or email (no patient, staff, locum or applicant details ever go into the AI tool)

Steps

1. List the practice basics in your own words: opening times, session pattern, diary and records systems (names only, never passwords), the equipment in each room, how GOS or private paperwork is done, where the complaints policy and referral contacts are, who to ask for help, and who retains overall clinical responsibility for the patient that day.
2. Write the booking facts for the brief: the date, session times, the clinical room, the person who will greet them and the fee you have agreed [AMOUNT AS YOU AGREED IT].
3. Paste both into the prompt. The AI returns a one-page booking brief and a handover sheet with blanks. It must not write or summarise any clinical protocol: link to your own protocols and leave the text to your clinical lead.
4. Before you confirm: check the register yourself on the GOC site (currently registered, specialty, conditions or restrictions, any fitness-to-practise investigation, GOC number matches), do your own identity check, and ask for evidence of the locum's indemnity cover for your business. Do not rely on the agency.
5. Send the brief, brief the locum on the day, and keep your notes of what you checked.

The exact prompt

I run an independent optical practice in the UK and am booking a locum. Below are (1) the practice basics and (2) the booking facts. They contain no names, patient details, passwords or clinical protocols.

Task: write (a) a one-page locum booking brief (date and times as I give them, the room, who greets them, who to ask for help, who has overall clinical responsibility [ROLE]); (b) a handover sheet with headings: Opening and session pattern; Diary and records systems (names only); Equipment by room; Paperwork and forms; Where the complaints policy is; Referral contacts and where they are kept; Who to ask for help; Notes. Use only my facts and leave [BLANK] where I have not given one. Do not write, summarise or invent any clinical protocol, test routine, referral criterion or patient advice.

RULES FOR THIS CHAT: I will give you only my practice's own facts, rules, dates, prices and headings. I have not included, and will not include, any patient name, address, phone number, email, date of birth, appointment, prescription, test result, clinical note, reason for a visit or any information about anyone's eyes or health, and no staff, locum or applicant name or personal detail. Do not ask for any, and do not invent any: use roles and blanks such as [OPTOMETRIST], [PRACTICE MANAGER], [STAFF MEMBER A] and [PATIENT]. Never give or suggest any clinical, referral, sight-test, test-interval, diagnosis, treatment, lens or product-suitability judgement, never say who is or is not entitled to an NHS sight test or any help with costs, and never say whether anything is compliant, adequate, lawful, valid or safe. Do not do arithmetic or count dates: copy every figure and date exactly as I typed it. If something is unclear, write [FOR THE PRACTICE TO DECIDE] instead of guessing.

PRACTICE BASICS AND BOOKING FACTS: [PASTE]