Managed Staff Bank Drives 60% Agency Reduction for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

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

Background

Medacs Healthcare has a long-standing 20 year+ partnership with Lancashire Teaching Hospitals (LTHFT), supporting the Trust with on-site managed service programmes, rate control and ongoing cost reduction.
In 2017, Medacs teams worked in partnership with LTHFT 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.

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.

Solutions

Medacs 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 development of the staff bank has reduced agency by over 60%. 

Results

In 2020, the work to transform the medical and dental bank for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals was recognised with Medacs Healthcare shortlisted as a finalist for two HSJ awards, for Workforce Innovation and Best Partnership with the NHS.