IT’s Time for a Fresh NHS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) July 7, 2010 -- Like football goal-line technology, the introduction of modern NHS IT services has been a slow and painstaking process, preventing the evolution a more streamlined & transparent institution.

One of the costliest sectors not currently optimised by innovative technologies is the management of temporary agency workers. Dealing with a plethora of recruitment agencies nationwide, each with their own agenda, creates intricacies that could be eradicated using the aptitude shown by the inception of systems like PMS and NHS Choices.

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IT’s Time for a Fresh NHS

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The National Health Service spent £44m on the Patient Management System (PMS) to spearhead the drive for a paper-free NHS, improve security and free up valuable staff time. It creates a transparent and unified system under which health boards share information securely, and already looks like money well spent.

NHS Choices is reportedly saving the NHS £44bn a year by reducing avoidable and unnecessary consultations and allowing the public to act on health advice offered by the site.

Both services have set the precedent for future savings using IT software and now the NHS must be sophisticated in all departments, using the technologies available to reduce spend in other areas.

At de poel, we believe categorizing the problem and systematically tackling the individual issues is the only way in which solutions can be easily conducted. In my opinion, problems with clarity, compliance and cost are the three biggest issues affecting an inefficient NHS.


Clarity

A lack of clarity stems from varying rules and regulations that result from working with a vast number of agencies, whom operate within their own standard terms and conditions. With fluctuating rates and mountains of invoices, difficulties arise in keeping track of what is exactly is happening within individual areas.

With wide geographical variations, public sector temporary agency workers with similar skills in the same job, working in an identical location, will rarely be on a comparable wage.

A transparent, easy to navigate system improves knowledge of workers’ roles across the board, creating opportunities to improve efficiencies by maximising existing resources with a singular nationwide operating system.


Compliance

Formal control, using a system where regular auditing checks are implemented to ensure agencies are operating under the same terms and conditions avoid both the direct costs of over-charging from certain agencies and the indirect costs of being supplied with a poorer quality of staff.

There have been over 130 prosecutions so far this year for the employment of illegal immigrants, with individual fines of £10,000, and according to Employment Agency Standards there were 2,393 infringements of law amongst recruitment agencies, with some looking to cut corners on compliance checks for temporary agency workers as a method of reducing their own costs.

By using a system that segregates only the most reputable agency suppliers, the NHS would be safe in the knowledge that they are both avoiding haemorrhaging money from over-charging, but also getting a higher standard of worker that would pass any compliance checks.


Cost

The primary objective of new IT systems has been to reduce costs, so a piece of technology to handle temporary agency workers ultimately has to produce the same objective.

With the average monthly invoice costing in the region of £50, a scenario where 10 temporary labour agencies each supply a different staff member is not only confusing, but costly; the level of paper-work involved for each monthly invoice is also extremely time consuming.

The huge volume of paper invoices that manage temporary agency workforces is often seen as a common grievance among clients and it is clear a more strategic time-sheet and invoice processing system is required to clear the debris.

Smart systems reduce cost; maintain quality through the application of streamlined composition, and mean the NHS become more strategic about procurement of temporary agency workers.

Solution

Operating with an appropriate software system which provides real time management information is a vital tool to tackle agency spend, helping an organisation adopt a more strategic approach to make better, more informed decisions.

It is evident during this climate of economic unrest and instability that the NHS has the opportunity to seek modern, efficient and innovative ways to reduce and control spend on labour whilst ensuring maximum efficiency, accountability and measurability at all times.

An IT structure to tackle temporary agency labour develops a more strategic partnership with suppliers, making the process slick, simple and entirely sustainable.

IT can be done.

For more information about how de Poel could help reduce your temporary agency spend by up to 12% please email Shaun Dempsey at sdempsey@depoel.co.uk or visit the de Poel website.

More information can be found online at http://depoel.co.uk

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