Case Study
Staff Bank and Agency Management
Dedicated onsite support to manage temporary staffing and develop a new staff bank for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
MEDICAL AND DENTAL
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Headline results
£2.2m
annual cost savings
60%
agency reduction
40%
staff bank growth
100%
direct engagement efficiency
95%+
fill rates maintained
Proactive, responsive and really supportive service, like a seamless extension of our own teams.
Almost doubled our fill and delivered impressive cost savings. We’ve just got a really good, open, honest relationship.
Workforce, Education and Strategy Director
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The history
Litmus teams (trading as Medacs Healthcare*) have a long-standing 20 year+ partnership with Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, supporting the Trust with on-site managed service programmes, rate control and ongoing cost reduction.
In 2017, our teams worked in partnership to build and develop one of the NHS’s first ever medical and dental staff banks, as part of the Department of Health’s new Flexible Bank pilot scheme.
Flexible bank pilot outcomes
The new staff bank was established in just seven weeks, with new technology implemented including a mobile app. The 97% fill rate achieved in the first 3 months was higher than all other participants in the scheme. This fill rate was maintained and in its first year of operation, the new bank delivered over £2 million in savings for the Trust.
In 2020, the medical and dental staff bank was shortlisted as a finalist for two HSJ awards, for Workforce Innovation and Best Partnership with the NHS.
Outcomes five years on
True additional capacity and a significant reduction in agency use
Litmus onsite teams have since grown the staff bank by 40%, recruiting and onboarding over 300 more clinicians. Much of this growth is also true additional capacity, with recruitment focused on attracting full-time ‘bank-only’ clinicians, which alleviates the pressure on substantive staff to work extra shifts. Bank resources are also fully optimised, with 48% of clinicians regularly working shifts across two or more specialties.
To date, the Trust has benefitted from a 60% reduction in agency use, annual recurrent cost savings of £2.2m, and VAT efficiencies with 100% of clinicians employed via direct engagement. Operational efficiency has been transformed with new systems (Patchwork) and consolidated invoicing.
Regular engagement with internal teams has been key to success, and our ‘grip and control’ approach to prevent rate escalations and embed new ways of working is now a recognised best practice strategy.
Benefits
Results and benefits
Cost benefits
- £2.2 million in annual cost savings
- Agency reduced by 60%
- 100% direct engagement efficiency
Workforce benefits
- 95%+ average fill rate
- 48% of clinicians cross-specialty working
- 21% bank-only workers
A finalist in two categories in the HSJ Partnership Awards
Partnership note: Due to a long-standing partnership in the provision of agency management services, the formal contracting entity for the Staff Bank and Agency Management service at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is Medacs Healthcare, a sister brand to Litmus that shares the same central services and governance within the MGG Health family of staffing brands.
Talk to Litmus
Keen to optimise your staff bank?
Speak to Litmus about how we can support to transform temporary staffing control and reduce agency reliance.
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