NHS

Our managed-service model has been adopted to date by 12 NHS Trusts in order to address acute staff shortages and to provide a safe, reliable and cost-effective alternative to traditional staffing models and short-term locum cover. In 2023 alone, NES doctors provided over 230,000 hours of medical services within these Trusts.

NES has in fact been working with NHS hospitals since the 1990s, but it is only in recent years that the potential benefits of managed rotations have begun to be fully realised.

How it works

The way this works is that a hospital will identify a specific need or area of shortage and engage NES provide doctors to work in this area on a fixed-term contractual basis. Rotations that are currently in operation include trauma & orthopaedics, general medicine and general surgery. NES selects, assesses and trains the doctors before introducing them to their role at the hospital.

Once in place the doctors work on a rotation that is designed to meet the needs of the patients and to be appropriate for he anticipated workload. Often this will be similar in pattern to existing tried and trusted doctor rotations so that our doctors working a similar number of hours to those employed directly by the hospital.

Throughout this arrangement doctors remain under the employment and management of NES, which means that we organise their holiday cover and provide emergency replacements for sickness as appropriate. We also undertake ongoing training and appraisals with the doctors to ensure that they can revalidate in a timely fashion.

Cost effective service

All of this is included in a monthly charge, which can work out substantially lower than the rates charged by most locum agencies. Regular, predictable monthly billing, together with stable rotas helps to provide a stable, cost-effective service.