British NHS Trusts of the Mid and South Essex University Hospitals Group are utilising the Locum’s Nest app to grow and improve their staff bank.
Locum’s Nest is a mobile and web application designed to match doctors with available work, digitising banks of available staff and cutting out the logistical complexities of recruitment agencies.
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Hiring managers are able to view an applicant’s CV, past experience and GMC status, as well as any relevant medical certificates. Doctors apply for shifts through Locum’s Nest which are pinged back to the hospitals advertising work, which can decide to recruit the individual onto their locum database.
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals Foundation Trust, Southend University Hospital FT and Mid Essex Hospital Services Trust are set to merge in April 2020 to become a single organisation, creating one of the biggest Trusts in the UK. They originally planned to merge in April 2019, but clinical reorganisation needs have led to delays.
By introducing Locum’s Nest across hospitals in Basildon, Southend and Mid Essex it will become easier for doctors working in this area to find, fill and receive payment for Bank shifts. Having access to a shared pool of clinicians through Locum’s Nest is expected to ease the transition into a single, large Trust, alongside improving staffing levels and cutting out agency fees.
Mid Essex Hospitals deputy medical director Dr Rebecca Martin said: “Growing a robust collaborative medical bank is a priority for our group of hospitals to deliver safe care to our patients whilst reducing the use of high cost agencies. The Locum’s Nest app will make it much easier for our doctors to book into vacant shifts and ensure our wards are well staffed.”
The creators of Locum’s Nest, Ahmed Shahrabani and Nicholas Andreou, claim their application has helped one provider save £2.6m in agency fees over the course of ten months and has matched more than 70,000 doctors to shifts since its inception.
Shahrabani said: “This will deliver a revolution to the people and patients of these three hospitals. More shifts filled, more often and more efficiently. It’s a really big deal for them to appoint us. We think this is a step-change for the way the NHS staffing can work.”
