Technology which connects short-staffed hospital departments and GP practices with thousands of clinicians is being made free to use in response to COVID-19.
Locum’s Nest, an NHS Providers’ Connect partner, has a platform that directly connects clinicians to temporary work. Last week it announced that it will offer free use of its shift-matching software to support efforts to recruit NHS clinicians as part of the NHS’ COVID-19 response.
The technology allows healthcare organisations to immediately reach out to the 25,000 clinicians currently signed up to Locum’s Nest’s platform to help fill short-term vacancies. As Stephen Kelly, former chief operating officer at HM Government mentions, "the NHS is run by amazing, committed, kind, selfless people at every level, but extraordinary events like this put our incredible health professionals under enormous pressure".
The platform will allow highly qualified, skilled and available clinicians, who may otherwise have had to manually submit forms and qualifications, to access all shifts listed on the app and get to work within hours.
As staffing issues grow across the NHS, this move will help the healthcare system cope with the anticipated staffing shortages and financial pressures caused by the outbreak.
As staffing issues grow across the NHS, this move will help the healthcare system cope with the anticipated staffing shortages and financial pressures caused by the outbreak.
Locum’s Nest’s co-founder of and former NHS junior doctor, Nick Andreou, says this is the time to wholeheartedly intensify efforts in order to support the national fight against the infection. "Our aim is to help healthcare organisations minimise the impact of the virus by allowing them to rapidly and remotely deploy the software within just ten days, giving them full access to staff, free of charge".
NHS Providers deputy chief executive, Saffron Cordery, describes how we need to make sure there are the right staff and resources in place to relive pressure on the NHS. “As teams work flat out to provide high quality care, there are huge challenges that need to be addressed”. She mentions how fantastic it is that Locum’s Nest is providing its product free of charge to NHS trusts so that temporary staff can fill shifts where they are most urgently needed and those who have left the NHS can be helped to come back to work.
Locum’s Nest have also announced that healthcare organisations who are already using their service will not see any excess charges applied during times of increased usage. They have outlined that the deployment of their software may need to be prioritised depending on which parts of the country have the most urgent need.
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