Ronda.vet, the veterinary locum platform which launched last year, has introduced a public reliability score for locums and practices, giving UK veterinary professionals a way to check cancellation history before confirming shifts.

The feature is live on Ronda.vet and calculates a reliability score for every practice and every locum based solely on confirmed shift cancellations and the notice period given.

The score appears publicly on each profile, and practices and locums can view each other's reliability rates before confirming a booking.

The system allows practices to see how often a locum has cancelled shifts and with how much notice, while locums can see which practices have cancelled confirmed shifts at short notice.

The reliability rate is calculated using a standardised penalty points model.

Cancellations made 14 days or more before a shift incur 0.5 penalty points, while cancellations with less than 24 hours' notice, or no-shows, incur five points.

For practices, the same logic applies, and a practice which cancels a confirmed shift with less than 24 hours' notice accrues the same penalty points as a locum doing so.

New practices and locums with no confirmed shifts display "N/A", while those with penalty points but no offsetting completions may show 0 per cent.

The system applies automatically to every confirmed shift on the platform.

Ibra Hernando, co-founder, Ronda.vet, and veterinary surgeon, said: "Reliability is the foundation of trust in locum work but, until now, it has largely been invisible until something went wrong."

"By making reliability rates visible and reciprocal, we are giving both practices and locums the same tool to assess each other."

Ronda.vet has also confirmed that exceptional circumstances such as illness or emergency can be reviewed by the support team, and the score is not intended to permanently penalise anyone for isolated incidents.