A group of London NHS hospitals have begun to use a centralised online staffing platform to fill urgent clinical vacancies in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Named the London Covid-19 Digital Staff Bank, it is being managed by healhtech start-up Patchwork Health and employment agency Reed Talent Solutions, and includes a secure system for sharing staff credentials. This enables people who have signed up for the service to immediately begin work at any of the hospitals using it.
Among the 14 hospitals that are currently being onboarded to use the system are Imperial College NHS Trust, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London North West University Trust and Hillingdon Hospital.
The companies said more hospitals are expected to join up soon, and that the platform has made 5,000 additional clinicians immediately available to all the hospitals involved.
Unprecedented challenge
Dawn Sullivan, deputy director of people and organisational development at Imperial College Trust, said: "We are in the midst of an unprecedented challenge across the NHS. Coming together to pool resources and share access to clinical expertise will help each trust react more effectively to current and upcoming challenges.
“By working together, and using technology to make it happen, we can support our incredible healthcare workers in getting to where patients need them most."
Image from GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0
