Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust (NGH) relied heavily on agency locums to plug medical staffing rota gaps. Due to archaic methods of communication within the Trust, doctors were often not aware of how to book staff bank shifts, resulting in a high number of shifts being filled by costly agency workers at higher rates, costing on average £243 (54%) more than bank workers per shift.
Patchwork Health worked with the Trust to promote a full-scale culture change within departments, to prioritise the use of their new digital staff bank rather than sending shifts straight to agency. Through the implementation of Patchwork’s tech-enabled staff bank service, the Trust streamlined its temporary staffing process, enabling departments to advertise shifts instantly across the Trust, and grew the staff bank both via internal and external recruitment.