Hull University Teaching Hospitals transform temporary staffing spend
Hull University Teaching Hospitals is the largest employer in the Hull and East Yorkshire region.
Scope and Objectives
Hull University Teaching Hospitals is the largest employer in the Hull and East Yorkshire region. As demand for care continues to grow and the services that are delivered and provided develop at pace, the NHS continues to face pressures on the funding it has available. A key focus for the Trust is to modernise practices, embrace new technology, and transform services. Their vision is ‘Great Staff – Great Care – Great Future’.
Historically, the recruitment and retention of medical staff has been an issue due to the geographical location of the Trust, which has meant that agency spend to fill their workforce gaps has been a challenge. The senior team knew expenditure associated with temporary staffing was too high, so they needed to bring transparency and extra understanding to this area, and to create opportunities for cost efficiencies. The Trust’s original objectives were:
- Gain greater control and visibility of all medical locum, Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) and Non Medical Non
- Clinical (NMNC) agency bookings.
- Streamline processes and systems.
- Adhere to NHSI guidance and thresholds.
- Centrally manage all medical bookings.
- Make significant savings.
- Transparency of bank rates and expenditure.
- Complete visibility of real-time data in one place.
Simon Nearney
Director of OD & Workforce
Achievements to date
How our TempRE Bank solution delivered savings, greater visibility and control
Education and training:
End-user training and ongoing support was provided to all system users involved. Investment in face-to-face communication took place to ensure staff understood how TempRE could save the Trust money, which lead to internal stakeholders being committed.
The medical staffing team has also benefited from Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accredited training (Liaison Academy modules) which have helped to improve negotiations and an understanding around the importance of Agency Direct Employment (ADE).
Karen Towse
Head of Financial Accounts
TempRE technology:
The platform has helped facilitate the transformation of the Trust’s processes and infrastructure leading to the centralisation of booking management for both medical bank and agency.
The Trust and workers benefited from the integrated TempRE App, meaning tasks could be completed on the go. With its rich functionality, TempRE has enabled the Trust to streamline from three separate systems to just one end-to-end solution.
Sue Richards
Head of Workforce Transformation and Service Delivery
Agency invoice disbursement service:
This disbursement service significantly reduced administrative tasks, provided comprehensive real-time reporting and invoice statuses, as well as reducing invoice errors and queries leading to improved accrual forecasting.
Agency management:
The TempRE system has allowed a preferred, pre-agreed tiering system to be adhered to leading to increased concordance, full audit trail and control. The quick, effective tiering system supported price controls and rate reductions whilst increasing the available supply resulting in quicker fill rates.
Workforce intelligence:
The suite provides visibility and granular detail to enable thorough analysis of temporary workforce spend. The Trust benefitted from a bespoke KPI dashboard with easy to use drill through functionality and automated commentary, which helped monitor trends and brought extra focus to key areas. In addition, TempRE provides automated NHSI returns reporting and local benchmarking for a wider perspective on key metrics.
On-site support:
Liaison Workforce’s support personnel have assisted the Trust with process re-design, resulting in a formalised, robust route to market.
Next steps Liaison Workforce will:
Work in partnership with the Trust to reduce their workforce gaps and minimise reliance on temporary and agency staff.
Introduce other efficiencies and cost savings to the Trust including greater adherence to process and supporting the eradication of standard placement bookings.
Explore the use of robotics to create further efficiencies and eliminate duplicate tasks.
Support the Trust to further optimise and transform their service, aligned to their overall vision.
Business:
Hull University Teaching Hospitals
Challenge
To modernise practices, embrace new technology, and transform services