The name on your GP clinic door and the name on today's consultation notes are often different people. That second doctor is usually a locum: a registered physician hired to hold the clinic while the regular doctor is on leave, at a course, or off the roster.
You can be seen. You should still look the locum up before you treat the visit as if your own doctor made the call.
What a locum doctor is
Locum comes from the Latin locum tenens, "holding the place." In a Singapore GP clinic it means a doctor employed for a shift or a stretch of days, not the doctor who owns the practice or whose name is on your Healthier SG enrolment.
The locum does the same work the regular general practitioner would do that day: history, examination, diagnosis, prescriptions, and procedures they are registered and competent to perform. They can write medical leave. They can refer you on.
What they do not have is your file in their head. The clinic record is there. The memory of how you reacted to the last antibiotic is not, unless someone wrote it down.
Locum, resident, and family physician are different jobs
People mix these up because all three wear the same coat.
A locum is covering. Many are experienced GPs who move between clinics. Some are specialists picking up GP sessions. The contract is temporary. The licence is not.
A resident in the hospital sense is a doctor still in a training programme, working under supervision toward a specialty. Meeting a resident on a ward round is not the same event as meeting a locum in a Heartland GP clinic.
A family physician has gone further in primary care training and usually stays with one practice. If you want one person to hold your history for years, that is the role to book. A locum shift will not become that relationship by the end of the consult. The difference is spelled out in what a family physician is.
How to check the doctor in two minutes
Singapore does not have a special "locum licence." The bar is registration with the Singapore Medical Council.
- Ask the clinic for the doctor's name as it appears on their SMC certificate, not the short name on the roster.
- Search that name on the SMC register.
- Read the registration type.
Full registration means the doctor may practise independently, which is what you want for a GP consult.
Conditional registration means they practise under approved supervision and in an approved setting. That can be legitimate. It is a different arrangement from a fully registered locum running the room alone. If the register says conditional and the clinic cannot name the supervisor, leave and book elsewhere.
Temporary registration is for a defined short appointment, often teaching or a specific post. It is uncommon at a neighbourhood GP and worth a question if you see it.
No record under that name means you do not sit down for the consult. A clinic that will not give you the name is the same answer.
Qualifications on the register (MBBS and anything after it) tell you where they trained. They do not tell you whether this person has seen your old notes. Ask that separately: "Do you have my record from the last visit?"
What a locum can and cannot do well
A straightforward consult is a good use of a locum. Sore throat, an obvious skin infection, a repeat of a stable prescription, a fever that needs eyes on it today: the locum can finish those.
A messy problem is a weaker use. Several months of symptoms, a medicine that has already failed once, a mental health plan, or a Healthier SG conversation about which screenings you are due. Those go better with the doctor who saw you last time. You can still start with the locum. Ask them to document the plan so your usual doctor can pick it up, and book the follow-up with that usual doctor by name.
The clinic chooses the locum. You do not get a menu. If your usual GP is the one enrolled under Healthier SG, a locum at that same clinic can often still see you for an acute problem. Subsidy rules for a specific scheme, including vaccinations tied to the enrolled doctor, are not automatically identical. Ask the counter before you assume the $0 flu shot applies to whoever is holding the room. The caps are in the October 2026 flu guide.
When the locum is the wrong queue entirely
Chest pain, sudden weakness on one side, trouble breathing, a head injury with vomiting, or bleeding you cannot stop is not a locum question. Those go to accident and emergency, or to 995. The comparison is in when to choose a GP over A&E.
A weekend locum is also a bad place to start a controlled-drug conversation or to dispute a hospital discharge plan. The covering doctor can keep you safe until Monday. They should not be asked to rebuild the plan from scratch.
FAQ
Is a locum a real doctor?
Yes, if the SMC register lists them. "Locum" describes the job that day, not a lower grade of qualification.
Will my Healthier SG clinic still charge the subsidised rate if a locum sees me?
Often yes for an ordinary consult at that clinic. Scheme-specific items, especially vaccinations that have to be given at the enrolled clinic, are the exception. Ask before the jab.
Can I refuse the locum and wait for my GP?
Yes. You may wait longer, and an acute infection will not wait with you. For a routine review, waiting is reasonable.
The locum prescribed something my GP stopped. What now?
Do not start it if you know it was deliberately stopped. Tell the locum, and message or call your usual clinic the next working day. The gap is the missing history, which is the actual risk of locum care.
If you need someone today, use the GP directory and ask who is on duty before you travel. If the problem can wait for the doctor who knows you, book that name. Checking the SMC register takes less time than a second consult to undo the first one.
