UK hospital trusts achieve savings of £130 million in agency staffing
Allocate’s 247Time delivers consistent real-time savings across 35 UK trusts
09 December 2020: As the UK healthcare system tackles the increase in Covid-19 patient admissions combined with the seasonal winter pressures, a report by health tech provider, Allocate Software, has found 35 UK hospitals have saved a total of £130 million over the last seven years on temporary agency spend by using an innovative procurement software tool from Allocate Software. Following analysis of agency spend by some key UK hospital trusts, the report showed that some of the highest savings achieved were at Barts Health NHS Trust which saved £13.2m. The findings support the priorities previously flagged by Health Secretary, Rt. Hon Matt Hancock MP, highlighting how technology can help save costs on agency fees.
The tool allows hospitals to centralise the processing of agency staff spend, eradicating ad-hoc spend as well as allowing NHS temporary workers to be paid directly rather than via an agency. This increases the visibility of spend across hospitals and saves on charges incurred from agencies, which alone saves trusts on average £750,000 on their agency staff spend.
With trusts under unrelenting pressure as they cope with the second wave of Covid-19 infections combined with the annual winter pressures, prioritising funding and balancing their budgets is vital. Allocate’s 247Time tool delivers ease and transparency for trusts managing temporary staffing requirements, stripping out unnecessary additional costs and streamlining the process.
John Simon, Head of Temporary Staffing at Barts Health NHS Trust commented: “I am so grateful that during our busiest times with Covid-19, the area of temporary staffing is the one area where we never experience any issues. Allocate’s 247Time system works perfectly – nothing skips a beat. It’s one less thing to worry about, leaving us to focus on the critical care beds.”
The key hospital trusts involved in this report are now committed to using Allocate’s 247Time tool for all their temporary staffing and expect to save on average a further £1.45m[1] per year.
[1] This figure is based on the top three trusts who participated in this report which achieved a combined 2019 savings of £4,342,088.32
Find out more about our 247Time DirectEngage solution or schedule your complimentary agency staffing assessment with a member of our team by emailing us at [email protected]
