King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has set up a digital staff bank in an effort to reduce shortages and support flexible working.
It has deployed the platform in a partnership with NHS workforce specialist Patchwork Health, initially enabling its 3,200 doctors to join and with plans to give all other staff groups access over the coming months.
King’s will be able to use the staff bank to broadcast available shifts within its network of temporary workers, who can choose when and where they work in line with their professional and personal commitments.
It will also enable approved clinicians to request their preferred shifts via an app, rota managers to approve shift requests, handle payments and monitor staff levels through a dashboard, and managers to access extensive real time data to assess demand for workers.
Dr Anas Nader, chief executive officer and co-founder of Patchwork Health, said: “The benefits for all staff across the trust are manifold; flexible working not only improves individual clinician wellbeing, but reduces unnecessary admin time for managers and ushers in a more sustainable way of staffing our wards.”
