Currently, many NHS Trusts use spreadsheets or outdated systems to manage their complex rota systems. This leaves individuals with little to no control over the hours or days they work. If a staff member is unwell or a ward is understaffed, NHS teams have to manually contact temporary staff or resort to expensive recruitment agencies to fill the gaps.
London-based Patchwork Health founded by NHS doctors replaces this rigid, analogue staffing infrastructure with modern, intuitive workforce systems. Its technology and services transform NHS workers’ service, be it full-time or temporary staff.
£3.5M investment
In a recent development, the healthcare staffing platform has bagged £3.5 million to accelerate their mission to solve the NHS burnout crisis. The funding round was led by Praetura Ventures and BMJ New Ventures. Both have backed the business for several years and are committed to continuing their support as Patchwork grows.
Dr Anas Nader, who co-founded Patchwork Health with Dr Jing Ouyang after they both witnessed the impact of staffing inefficiencies first-hand as NHS doctors, said: “The NHS is facing a workforce crisis. “We’re already partnering with over 70 NHS sites to tackle the root causes of burnout, offer full-time and temporary staff more choices, and create stronger staffing foundations for hospitals. Through our technology and services, flexible work and safely staffed wards can go hand in hand. We’re so grateful to our NHS partners,
and to the teams at Praetura Ventures and BMJ New Ventures, for making this possible and enabling us to scale up our services at a time of critical need.”
David Foreman, Managing Director at Praetura Ventures and Non-Executive Director of Patchwork, added: “We’re delighted to be supporting the Patchwork team. From the moment we met Anas and Jing, we could see the passion for their business. Patchwork is helping to solve a staffing crisis in the NHS. They’ve made real strides over the last 18 months and have the potential to make seismic changes in the way we organise staff in one of the world’s largest healthcare systems. At a time when there’s so much pressure on the frontline, innovative platforms like Patchwork will help us shape a better future for this critical industry whilst continuing to maintain high levels of patient care. Everyone at Praetura Ventures is excited to help Patchwork build something that’s going to benefit so many people.”
Anca Babor, BMJ’s Strategy Director, said: “We are excited to continue to support Patchwork Health in their next stage of growth – it’s a testament to the great progress the team is making and the strong partnership we have built together. A recent editorial in The BMJ argued that improving staff health and wellbeing is far from being a “nice to have,” it is a moral, social, and economic priority. Patchwork plays an important role in achieving this goal, and we are proud to be part of their journey towards a transparent, fair, and efficient workforce planning system that will ultimately improve patient care and create a healthier world.”
Flexible staffing for NHS workers
Patchwork Health was founded in 2016 and its workforce technology and services are used by over 70 NHS sites to fill vacant shifts and offer staff flexible working, helping to stem the tide of clinicians leaving the health service due to burnout and poor work-life balance. The NHS currently has 90,000 vacancies and 1 in 5 staff are considering quitting due to rising levels of stress and exhaustion.
Patchwork Health’s services have so far enabled over 1.7 million hours of NHS shifts to be sustainably staffed and saved the NHS an estimated £21 million in temporary staffing fees.
NHS organisations using the Patchwork technology have witnessed staff retention, reduced staff shortages, improved outcomes for patients, and reduced reliance on external recruitment agencies which currently cost the NHS £2.6 billion each year.
Collaborative staff banks
Besides bringing flexibility for NHS workers, Patchwork has pioneered the use of “collaborative staff banks” across the UK. This initiative brings together multiple primary or secondary care sites across a region to create a shared pool of temporary staff. It lets clinicians work where they are most needed, rather than be tied to one site. Their credentials are automatically and compliantly ported between hospitals through the Patchwork system, with payment and admin processes also automated.
During the pandemic, a Patchwork-powered COVID-19 staff bank for doctors in North West London witnessed 14 local hospitals (including Chelsea Westminster and Imperial) create a shared pool of staff to cover absences and respond to peaks in demand. A range of collaborative staff banks have become permanent fixtures across the UK. This includes the largest collaborative staff bank in the country, after Patchwork brought together over 18 NHS Trusts and 6,000 doctors in the North West of England.
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