10 Years of Locum’s Nest: From blueprints in a cafe to £700M in NHS savings
Ahmed Shahrabani & Nicholas Andreou,
Co-founders of Locum’s Nest
2015: Coffee, code & Dr Owlbert - The origin story
Back in 2015, as junior doctors navigating hectic hospital rotas and fragmented shift systems, we felt the deep inefficiencies of the NHS workforce model. So over endless coffees at our local neighbourhood gym, we sketched out what would become Locum’s Nest, a digital solution to help healthcare professionals and managers better connect, communicate, and collaborate. With no prior tech background, we enrolled in a coding course and built our 1st version of the Locum’s Nest platform ourselves.
And the owl? We picked it for a reason. Like NHS staff, it’s clever, hard-working, and nocturnal.
2016: Our 1st NHS partner joins the Nest
Our 1st version of the platform launched in the ENT department at Royal Surrey County Hospital. Among our earliest innovations was the UK’s first fully functional offline digital timesheet, designed for wards with patchy Wi‑Fi, a simple but powerful solution to allow doctors to submit hours and to streamline payments. It sounds simple, but for clinicians juggling shifts across departments, it solved a real-world problem that existing systems had.
Later that year, Royal Surrey officially became our first NHS trust partner, marking the beginning of our journey from a grassroots idea to a national workforce solution.
2017: Making history with the NHS’s 1st Digital Collaborative Bank
In 2017, we launched the first digital collaborative staff bank in the NHS. Doctors from Royal Surrey County Hospital and Ashford & St Peter’s Hospitals could now seamlessly cover shifts across both trusts, a landmark step toward integrated, flexible NHS staffing. The Digital Collaborative Bank (DCB) laid the groundwork for a scalable, cross-trust workforce model.
For the 1st time, doctors could seamlessly cover shifts across both trusts, no duplicate sign-ups, no repeated paperwork. Just trusted, flexible movement of staff where they were most needed.
Behind the scenes, we brought the trusts together through a shared digital infrastructure, harmonising pay rates, standardising employment checks, and increasing each trust’s staff bank. It laid the groundwork for a scalable, cross-trust workforce model. The success of that two-trust pilot laid the groundwork for what’s now a superbank, spanning trusts from North Middlesex to Dorset County.
2018: From local pilots to regional momentum
By 2018, the DCB had expanded to include Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Salisbury Hospital.
We expanded and established our own in-house engineering team, strengthening our tech and operational capabilities. That same year, North Middlesex University Hospital became our first London trust, a significant milestone in our geographic reach.
2019: Bigger platform, bigger impact
We launched a bigger and better version of the platform with a refined UX and stronger backend infrastructure. That year, The Telegraph recognised Locum’s Nest among the Top 5 ideas to save the NHS. We supported Mid & South Essex University Hospitals Group in revitalising their medical bank during their merger, which led to £2.6 million in agency savings in under a year.
2020: Dr Owlbert goes all in for COVID care
When the pandemic hit, we responded quickly: we made our technology available free to all NHS trusts, enabling rapid mobilisation of staff. We introduced communication tools, allowing trusts to send key updates directly to their workforce. Importantly, we expanded access beyond doctors to include nurses and Allied Health Professionals.
2021: One platform. One NHS.
This was a year of platform evolution. We launched a partnership with new providers for real-time rostering integration, enabling a flexible end-to-end workforce model. We launched a new Agency Management Solution to ensure market-rate fairness and transparency. Working with ASPH, we rolled out the solution and supported a full nursing workforce launch. ASPH adopted the entire Locum’s Nest platform across both medics and AHPs, one of the most comprehensive deployments to date.
We also made it into the Financial Times FT1000, ranking among Europe’s fastest-growing companies.
2022: Integration that fills hard-to-fill shifts
A major technical milestone: our first integration with several of the NHS’ major rostering systems went live. This allowed hard-to-fill vacancies in rostering systems to be auto-published to Locum’s Nest, enhancing visibility and fill rates, while streamlining administrative workloads.
2023: Smarter staffing with AI and analytics
The Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire (SWaG) Collaborative Staff Bank was born, spanning 6 Trusts across the region.
In other collaborative news, the DCB expanded to 11 NHS Trusts, 9,000 healthcare professionals, and over 60,000 shifts annually, delivering significant savings and efficiencies.
We also introduced the Shift Popularity Index (SPI), a new AI-powered tool that helps Trusts make more informed decisions about shift escalation and fill strategies. SPI supports workforce teams by highlighting which shifts are more or less likely to be filled, allowing teams to prioritise effort and resources where they’re needed most.
2024: Our first national conference
We broadened the platform to support over 40 different healthcare roles! We also hosted our first-ever national conference, Formula for Success 2024, at Silverstone Circuit, bringing together NHS leaders, staff members, teams, and workforce experts to share insights, explore new tools, and foster meaningful collaboration. Stay tuned for details around Formula for Success 2025! 👀
2025: A decade of delivery and £700 million in NHS savings
Today, Locum’s Nest has officially enabled over £700 million in savings across the NHS through smarter workforce management. We’re proud to support a community of tens of thousands of healthcare professionals and over 50 partners.
This year also marks an exciting new chapter in our journey. As we look to the next decade, one that will demand greater innovation, collaboration, and scale, we are proud to share that Locum’s Nest is now part of Aya Healthcare, the largest healthcare talent software and staffing company in the United States.
For us, this isn’t about changing direction, it’s about deepening our impact. With Aya’s support, we’re better equipped than ever to strengthen our commitment to the NHS, accelerate our product innovation, and grow a truly sustainable workforce model for the long term.
So, what about the future?
From coffee napkins to a national platform, our journey has been one of persistence, partnership, and purpose. We’re proud to have built a NHS-led ecosystem that simplifies workforce management and delivers real value to the NHS. From offline timesheets to AI‑powered analytics, from a single ward to national scale, our focus remains fixed on transparency, fairness, and collaboration.
A heartfelt thank you
To every NHS trust, every healthcare professional, every app user, and every team member, thank you. Your belief, your insight, and your partnership have brought Dr Owlbert’s first flight to life and carried us through a decade of growth and impact.
And to our incredible team (past and present) thank you for your dedication, creativity, and relentless commitment to the mission. None of this would be possible without you.
Together, we look into the future:
🦉 £1 billion in savings
🦉 A fully interoperable and healthcare professional-centric NHS workforce
🦉 A future built on digital innovation, empathy, and collaboration
