Key Benefits
Lower cost staffing cover guaranteed during peak periods
Enhanced quality, continuity of care and teamworking
Detailed reports and data insights to aid demand planning and cost control
Cost effectively flex staffing levels to meet surges in demand
Sharp rises in demand due to winter pressures or other factors can impact heavily on NHS budgets, often forcing the use of off-framework agencies at a significantly increased cost.
Advance planning is essential to ensure safe staffing cover during these peaks without escalating rates.
With Additional Capacity Projects (ACP) we support the NHS to cover increased demand more cost-effectively by planning early. We build flexible resource pools of contingent staff (typically nurses), based on long term ‘block bookings’ and regular working patterns.
The model is framework-compliant and proven to provide a guaranteed volume of staff to temporarily boost capacity during peak levels of demand.
At a glance
Enhanced Training
With advance long-term bookings, more thorough onboarding can be arranged, incorporating trust or ward-based inductions and other specific training (e.g. infection control in green areas).
Continuity of Care
Staff booked into regular shift patterns quickly build familiarity with established teams and procedures, embedding themselves more effectively into day-to-day operations.
Additional Capacity During Nursing Winter Pressures Case Study
Medacs Healthcare, the largest provider of healthcare managed service solutions in the UK, began working with Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 2014. The Trust provides services to the 400,000 residents of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre and North Lancashire, as well as specialist tertiary care for cardiac and haematology services across the wider region.
With increased hospital admissions and longer stays, the Winter Pressures period is recognised as a significant challenge for all trusts and health boards. Compounded by ongoing staff shortages and recruitment difficulties, the winter months can drive up costs with many trusts forced to increase the use of high cost off-framework agencies to supply the additional nursing staff they need to safely care for patients.
In the summer of 2018, the Trust prepared their Winter Resilience Plan and recognised that they would need to secure 26 full-time nurses to safeguard clinical services during this period and fulfil targets to open more beds and reduce A&E waiting times. In previous years, the Trust experienced staff shortages and was keen to prevent this, and to avoid the use of expensive off-framework providers.
Medacs Healthcare significantly relieved our staffing challenges, providing additional nurses and HCAs, managing onboarding and achieving excellent fill rates. This vital support allowed us to keep additional beds available, avoid using high-cost agencies and safeguard patient care over the winter months
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Deputy Director of Nursing and Quality
