Bradford Teaching Hospitals implements Allocate 247Time

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has implemented Allocate’s 247Time system, improving visibility of agency staffing needs and practices and delivering a 27% reduction in agency spend in the first 12 months.

As well as ensuring high standards of patient care; 247Time has helped the trust achieve better expenditure control, generating further efficiencies and cost savings.

The trust provides services to around 500,000 people living in and around Bradford and its 5,500 staff work over several sites, including Bradford Royal Infirmary, St Luke’s Hospital, and three local community hospitals.

Allocate’s 247Time provides the trust with agency management, payroll and direct engagement technology; replacing its previous system whereby each division managed agency workers separately, often using paper records.

This gave the trust little visibility of workforce performance or agency spend and no ability to generate trust-wide reporting.

247Time enables the trust to link its eRostering platform to agency and bank systems, allowing quick, safe and cost-efficient sourcing of nursing and medical staff.

This allows us to work efficiently and quickly while providing peace of mind that we are delivering the best-possible levels of patient care across every team and department

Rachel Pyrah, flexible workforce services manager at the trust, said: “As well as implementing 247Time, we brought together three teams - e-Rostering, nurse bank and locum booking - to create a flexible workforce department.

“The cost efficiencies delivered by the new system have been significant. Better visibility and reporting have allowed us to reduce agency spend in our first year and we are on track to reduce this even further in 2019.

“Even more importantly, we can now track and measure patient care standards, identifying quickly whether an agency staff member is compliant with our clinical practices rather than having to reply on agency records.

Better visibility and reporting have allowed us to reduce agency spend in our first year and we are on track to reduce this even further in 2019

“This allows us to work efficiently and quickly while providing peace of mind that we are delivering the best-possible levels of patient care across every team and department.”

Hugh Ashley, managing director at Allocate UK and Ireland, added: “Using 247Time, the trust has been able to progress the NHS’s strategic priorities around patient needs and safety, while at the same time incurring significant cost savings.

“These achievements are testament to the trust’s collaboration with our team, its cultural changes, and commitment to advancing its digital agenda.”