How North Central London STP is forming the capital's largest medical collaborative staff bank
We are delighted to share that the North Central London Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (NCL STP) has appointed Locum’s Nest to create London’s largest collaborative staff bank for their 10 NHS Trusts.
By introducing our cloud-based solution, it will enable each hospital to access a larger pool of doctors and tackle the building pressure on our NHS healthcare professionals.
This new collaboration comes only a few months after the NHS England/Improvement ICS Design Framework was published, which advocated for digital innovations as a solution to workforce pressures. This quick timeline is a mammoth achievement, shining a spotlight on the NCL STP’s proactiveness and appetite to put NHS England’s recommendations into practice.
A shift in perspective; from competition to collaboration
Whilst the concept of merging staff banks has historically been seen as a risk within the NHS, the pandemic shed a new light on the benefits of a collaborative workforce.
Trusts have always needed more doctors on their books. Retention and recruitment remains a core challenge and often leads to a competitive environment between organisations. But, with the continuously growing work resulting from Covid-19 - and the consequential backlog of elective care and operations - a new approach was needed.
Hospitals and organisations who had previously restricted the mobility of their staff began to experience even more limitations, as more bodies were needed to fight the virus. They were forced with no choice but to embrace collaboration.
This accelerated a nationwide shift towards the sharing of staff banks, the adoption of which is now highly encouraged by the NHS National Policy.
Increasing staff capacity to tackle the Covid-19 backlog and improve patient care
The NCL STP immediately recognised the need for change and have instilled a collaborative workforce vision to not only increase staff capacity but to reduce admin time, tackle the waiting list and ultimately improve patient care.
Locum’s Nest was chosen to create a cloud-based solution that allows each of the 10 Trusts to share their individual clinician staff banks and access a huge pool of available doctors. A cascade layer enables Trusts to share vacant shifts to their overall collaborative bank via the cloud, where workers can be booked in a matter of minutes.
In doing so, each hospital will benefit from a dramatically increased shift fill rate, with wider shift visibility, quicker allocation and improved workforce planning. The use of the Locum’s Nest Digital Passport also means access to more doctors who can safely work at multiple Trusts without the need for repeated HR compliance checks - saving unnecessary manual administration.
“We are very excited to be adopting a Collaborative across the 10 Trusts - it will not only help us share resources seamlessly across Trusts but will also help grow our staff bank by attracting workers across the UK.” — Natalie Nightingale, Head of Temporary Staffing at UCLH
Enhancing flexibility for NHS doctors
The seamless movement of doctors from one Trust to another is crucial to the post-pandemic response and inspires a more resilient NHS workforce. The visibility of available shifts offers more flexible working options to a huge pool of London’s healthcare professionals. This is key at a time where levels of medical burnout, and the repercussions of unhappy staff, are at their highest.
According to recent figures, mental health related absences among NHS employees have risen by 55% from 2020 to 2021. And this increase shows no sign of stopping. It is now a top concern among Trusts who fear they will lose more doctors and nurses who simply can’t face the impact of the pandemic on their own health. Experts warn that our healthcare service will face a ‘mass exodus’ of staff if we don’t address these issues and begin to fully support our frontline workers.
Through embracing the non-rigid, flexible working nature of a collaborative staff bank, NCL have empowered their clinicians to take back control of their work-life balance and overcome the waitlist backlog without piling pressure on their workload. In doing so, the Trusts can reassure and retain their staff, putting an end to the threat of increased resignations.
By adopting a collaborative model supported by a technology provider, NCL STP will see a shift in better resource planning, increased staff engagement and ultimately, more shifts being filled. Such benefits are vital to improving overall patient safety and quality of care.
“Alignment and Collaboration are key pillars of the NHS People Plan. Embracing this collaborative way of working will enable us to build resilience into our workforce, at the time where our hospitals most need it.” — Dennis Carlton, NCL STP Programme Director
___
For NHS Trusts, ICSs or STPs wishing to find out more about the project or seeking to deploy similar models of collaborative working, please get in touch with our co-founder, Dr Ahmed Shahrabani, at ahmed@locumsnest.co.uk or contact the team here.