Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust makes £690,000 in Agency Staffing Savings
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust provides acute care and specialist health services across three main hospitals: Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance and St Michael’s Hospital in Hayle. It serves a population of around 470,000 people, a figure that can increase significantly with visitors to the area during the busiest times of the year.
New Provider, Higher Savings
Already an avid operator of direct engagement, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust took to the market to find a provider that could support their agency management, but at a reduced cost to help release bigger savings on their investment.
The final decision was made following a procurement fact-find on direct engagement provider comparatives that found Allocate StaffDirect to be the lowest in cost. The results presented showed a saving of £15 for every £1 spent based on roughly 70% of their agency workers using direct engagement.
As an existing RLDatix customer with Allocate Optima, ActivityManager, JobPlan, SafeCare and BankStaff, the trust felt more confident in the experience they would receive.
“There was a clear and easy decision for the trust to make. The cost for Allocate StaffDirect was significantly lower than the rest of the market. These savings would help towards better resourcing for our temporary staffing team but also demonstrates greater value for money at a point when all eyes are on the spend within the trust.”
Leanne HargreavesMedics Rostering Lead
Wrap-Around Team Deployed
Given the trust had previous processes in place for direct engagement, the Services and Support department created a dedicated wrap-around team, who worked closely with the Temporary Staffing department, ensuring the least amount of disruption to agency management and invoicing.
“The implementation of Allocate StaffDirect was a really positive experience. We had a number of people that we could call on for support and guidance, in particular David Kielty, Application Support Manager, who was always completely transparent on the delivery. We couldn’t fault the support – everyone made it very easy for us.”
Setting up for Success: Savings & Performance
Bigger agency staffing savings were seen from day one due to the lower investment costs, and the Trust has now seen NET savings of £690,000.
Greater still, the trust shared their appreciation towards how their feedback had been used since implementing the solution, saying “We’ve seen immediate improvements in the system following the feedback we’ve shared and can see further changes enroute in the near future.”
“Staff shortages are impacting trusts nationwide on a day-to-day basis. But as you can imagine; finding medics and AHPs for shifts and last-minute cover in Cornwall can be quite the task given our location. Allocate StaffDirect gives us the right level of control – enough to keep the process consistent and efficient, but also enough for us to influence medics bookings ourselves when needed.”
Moving the Needle on Direct Engagement
The Trust is in urgent need of complex speciality medics, yet with the limited availability of such a skill-set (given the location) and the cost of travel plus accommodation, agency staff will still have a role to play. The consideration will be direct engagement vs non-direct engagement workers.
This leads onto the next task in sight for Leanne and her team – to encourage more doctors onto direct engagement, resulting in further savings on agency staffing.
“Not only that, but we’re grateful to have such solid support from the team at RLDatix and Allocate and appreciate the collaboration between us all. It’s very much a working partnership, where we can input into development and see our comments being taken seriously and acted upon.”
