Supporting our NHS Trusts through COVID-19: A Free NHS Staff Bank and Isolation Tracker

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all NHS workers who are working both bravely and tirelessly in the fight against Covid 19.

You are our heroes.

The Issue

ID Medical supports over 90% of NHS trusts secure doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals on both a permanent and temporary basis. It’s common knowledge how under pressure all NHS facilities are right now due to the global pandemic. In particular though, and from speaking directly with NHS hospitals, they’ve expressed two specific difficulties.
The first is their ability to provide a complete workforce to maintain high levels of patient care due to increasing rota gaps rota gaps caused by staff needing to self-isolate.
Second, they’re also struggling to effectively keep track of which staff are self-isolating. They simply lack the ability and resources to provide support to those staff who are having to test for the virus, self-isolate and ultimately, efficiently manage which staff are due back at work and when.
 

Our Solution

With those problems in mind, ID Medical sought to provide a bespoke solution for our NHS hospitals, as the power lies within partnerships: And the result? We’ve delivered an award-winning digital platform to provide free bank staff to all NHS trusts until October 2020.
Our solution will help fill those essential rota gaps and also help hospitals with the wellbeing of their workforce, so they can concentrate on protecting and caring for the health of the nation.
 

What is it?

We’ve developed this platform exclusively with our partners Clarity: one of the longest serving and respected providers of recruitment and bank workforce solutions.
Our clients and NHS trusts will be able to use this platform on their desktop or mobile devices to gain complete control over every aspect of staffing; plus, keep track of which staff are off, self-isolating and when they are due to return back to work. The platform also provides the provision of direct communication with their staff; allowing both medical professionals and hospitals to receive regular updates from each other via simple instant messages.
 

If your NHS trust is interested in going digital to help alleviate the stress on your staff, we can support you with an all-encompassing solution: digital consultations, clinics and triage assessments to suit your individual trusts needs. Just hit the ‘Learn More’ button below to discover more…

Access to our Staff Bank

A staff bank plays a vital role in supporting NHS hospitals in maintaining high standards of patient safety and care. If a hospital doesn’t have enough staff on a ward due to the increased demand of the service, sickness or staff shortage, they’ll need the support of temporary staff.
To help alleviate these pressures and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our NHS heroes, we’re offering the NHS a free ‘bank’ of highly flexible doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals. Right now, we have over 70,000 registered on our bank from various roles, grades and specialties. So, if you’re a doctor or nurse who is looking to enhance your skill set, gain more experience or advance your career – ID Medical can help you with this.
 

What are the advantages of using our NHS Staff Bank App?

There are three main advantages to utilising our digital platform: cost savings, managing service demands and the ability to keep staff and patients safe.
 

Cost Savings

Reports reveal that temporary staff to fill rota gaps cost on average 20% more than those from a staff bank – despite doing the exact same job. Our NHS Staff Bank will connect our doctor, nurse or allied healthcare professionals to the hospital without the need of any effort from the hospitals side – the platform then charges a flat fee for each shift. Simple.
To demonstrate the cost savings, Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust has been using our technology for 24 months and they have saved over £6.2 million. Along with a huge annual saving across staffing and recruitment, the Trust have enjoyed a job fill rate of 97%, a 21% reduction in agency spending and ended their year (2018-2019) £1.3 million under their NHS agency spend ceiling.
 

Managing Service Demands

Prior to Covid 19, we saw an increase in the rising demand of treatment from the NHS. With rising admissions and growing delays in discharging patients, there were high bed-occupancy rates. When the virus spread to the UK in January and then the transmission began in February, we knew the pressure on the NHS was going to be immense.
Nevertheless, the UK nation pulled together with the opening of Covid 19-specific hospitals, retired doctors and nurses returning back to work and hundreds of thousands NHS volunteers – the response has been spectacular. That being said, the NHS needed over 100,000 staff before the pandemic and we’ve now seen that number double as a result of it. Due to ongoing staff shortages, there are risks of closing particular hospitals as a lack of staff to meet the demands of the service.
However, the technology we’re offering free of charge to all hospitals could be the solution our UK public health service needs not just now, but also in the weeks, months and years ahead – meaning the NHS can effectively tackle the challenges of a post-Covid 19 world. Our platform can help ensure the right people, with the right skills are in the right place at the right time – ready to fight on the frontline.
This will mean there will be no rota gaps, your staff will feel less burnt out continue to provide high levels of patient care.
 

Staff and Patient Safety

People are the NHS’ biggest asset and all trusts have an obligation to strike the right balance between patient safety, cost and efficiency. Having a successful digital Staff Bank can influence culture change and give staff the support and resources they need to make change on the frontline.
Utilising our effective NHS Staff Bank will provide you with:

• Details on staffing levels in real time, which aids intelligent planning for demand allowing hospitals to take account of sickness, self-isolation dates, leave, skills and competencies, staff changes, patient acuity and dependency
• Less overstaffing and understaffing
• Ensuring safety and efficiency
• Reducing the reliance on agency staff
• Flexibility as the situation changes daily and hourly
• Promoting the effective redeployment of staff across the organisation to maintain safe staffing levels.

To summarise, our digital platform is in direct response to the NHS’ current necessities. We’ve considered all factors from patient needs, staff needs, organisational needs, the workforce and the skills required to deliver services and workforce availability when it’s really needed.
We believe that digitising your NHS staff bank is a pivotal function, especially during this time because it ensures staffing resources are appropriately allocated to provide a high quality and efficient health service, helping maximise productivity.
 

If you are an NHS trust who is interested in gaining free open access to our digital staffing platform, hit the ‘Learn More’ button below.