Journey to system working in the South West

Liaison Workforce

In October 2020, the Southwest Peninsula NHS Bank will open. The bank is a regional collaboration bringing together providers from across the South West region to allow all staff groups to book shifts tailored to their preferences. Initially, the bank will focus on medical and dental staff, with other staff groups planned for the future. This will enable the healthcare providers involved to fill their clinical shifts quickly and without additional agency fees.

Liaison Workforce Business Development Manager, Eduardo Leonardo, first raised the idea of system working whilst developing the first local medical bank at the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust in early 2017. Since then, Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Devon Partnership NHS Trust and Livewell Southwest CIC joined the collaboration.

“Our aim in joining this collaborative bank with our fellow healthcare providers in the region was to increase the flexibility we can offer for clinical shifts and provide a smooth and straightforward end to end system to book and pay staff. We can’t wait to see it up and running.”
Judy Falcao, Director of Workforce & Organisational Development, Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust

The advantages of having system working in operation across the trusts involved were widely recognised by the key stakeholders and included the opportunity to keep junior doctors in the region for longer, whilst widening their options for training, and also for improving overall patient care with known medical personnel.

“Over the last few years, the trusts in Devon have been working together to find ways to ensure that we provide care that is safe and accessible in all parts of the county. Key to that is the filling of medical workforce gaps when and where they occur. The collaborative bank for medical staff will make that easier for everyone and it is great to see it now in operation.”
Rob Dyer, Lead Medical Director, Devon Sustainability and Transformation Partnership

What will the Southwest Peninsula NHS Bank achieve?

• Break down barriers and enable the easy deployment of the workforce across the participating organisations.
• Enabling system working across the region.
• Improve financial sustainability of the region through reducing agency staff usage and enhanced workforce planning and demand reduction.
• Improve quality of patient care, by using fewer agency staff and improvement of staff retention.
• Improve workforce planning and demand capacity through access to region-wide workforce intelligence, and promotion of a “support culture” between providers.

“Despite the disruption caused by COVID-19, it is really exciting to now be ready to launch the Southwest Peninsula NHS Bank. Each project meeting has moved us closer to this date, and it has been fantastic to see the collaboration between the five healthcare providers and Liaison Workforce to agree on areas such as marketing strategy and communications, rates of pay, attraction strategies, registration processes and worker contracts. We look forward to seeing the resulting benefits to the providers involved, the junior doctors and other medical staff, and ultimately the patients within the region.”
William Thomas, Liaison Workforce

Through its data-driven insights, ground-breaking technology and solution-focused people, Liaison Workforce is pleased to deliver the Southwest Peninsula NHS Bank for the benefit of the region.

To discuss system working and collaborative bank opportunities for your region, please get in touch at [email protected]