Locumotive was originally established by veterinary surgeon Rebecca Cook.
About Us
Diana Rees, also a veterinary surgeon, took over the company in 2011. Deena Townsend, an RVN, has been working with Diana since 2018.
As locums ourselves, we have first-hand experience of the challenges involved for locum vets and nurses and veterinary practices searching for temporary staff.
About Diana
I was born and grew up in south Wales and for as far back as I remember, I always wanted to be a vet. I graduated from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, in 1988 and over the years I worked at practices in south Wales, the West Midlands and the south-west.
In 2011 I was advised to give up clinical work for health reasons and towards the end of that year I acquired Locomotive. Although I was very disappointed to have to stop working as a vet, I am glad that my work keeps me in touch with the veterinary world, and that I get to work with so many great practices and locums.
Outside of work, I play the violin in a local orchestra, and I enjoy growing my own fruit and vegetables. Last year I took up paddle boarding and on sunny summer evenings you can find me exploring the local waterways.
About Deena
I grew up in the heart of Devon and did my VN training in a busy mixed practice near Dartmoor. After qualifying as an RVN in 1997, I rescued a beautiful Collie cross named Ridley from the RSPCA. He moved with me to North Somerset to work in a small animal hospital, so I could further my career.
We moved around the Somerset and Bristol area several times and he was a great companion. Since having children 15 years ago, I have locumed in multiple practices and love the autonomy and work / life balance this allows.
When Di asked me to join her at Locumotive in 2018, working to supply locum vets and RVN’s to local practices in need of cover, I jumped at this chance. I work mostly from home now and enjoy the satisfaction of matching locums with practices. It definitely helps that I’ve locumed at many of the practices myself too!
We strongly believe in matching the correct vet or nurse to the correct position.
For this reason, we like to build up a close relationship with locum vets, vet nurses and practices, to ensure our locums are matched to the most suitable positions.
We will usually arrange to meet face to face with new locums whenever this is possible and find out as much as we can about the positions they would like to work in.
This helps us to ensure that locums are placed in the most suitable roles and that the vets and nurses we put forward are qualified for the position the practices have available.