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Contents

Locum Agency Doctors Transfers to Bank

Reference: 23-24490

Date response sent: 11/03/2024

Details of enquiry

  1. What communication have you received from NHSI and NHSE in regards to moving locum agency doctors on to hospital bank between August 2022 & August 2023?
  2. What additional communication has your trust received in the year 2024 in regard to moving doctors from agency on to bank?
  3. What, (in both percentage and nominal terms) of your temporary doctor staffing spend went on bank in the last 12 months? Please provide figures for the 12 months previous for comparison
  4. What set rates do you use for your bank staff at SHO, SpR & Consultant levels?
  5. How many full time doctor rota gaps are covered long term by bank staff in your trust? How many of these roles are covered at your set bank rates and how many are over these rates?
  6. How many doctors have been moved from agency directly to your bank in the last 12 months? Of these, please provide a breakdown of the cost increases or savings that have been made per doctor.
  7. What is the most you have spent on a single Bank shift in the last 12 months and what grade/specialty was it to cover? What is the most you have spent on a single agency locum shift in the last 12 months and what grade/speciality was it to cover?
  8. Please provide a breakdown as to how you work out the real cost of each bank shift. This should be pay rate, employment taxes (ENI + AL), Pension costs, annual leave and study leave, and third party bank fees.
  9. When quoting a PAYE rate for your bank staff, is WTR included in this cost or is it an additional cost on top?
  10. What % Pension contribution from the trust is paid to bank workers as Employer Contribution?
  11. What was your total doctors bank spend in 2022 and 2023, what was your agency spend for the same period?
  12. How many doctors were moved from working via an agency in 2023 on to the bank?
  13. Is your bank ran by staff on the hospital’s payroll or via a third party?
  14. If using a 3rd party for your bank services, what is the charge for their services and how is this calculated as part of your bank spend? Do they charge per hour, per shift, or a monthly fixed cost?

Response sent

It is important for your contextual understanding of our response below that you are aware that the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is not a hospital.  We provide staffing for just one Child Psychiatry OOH rota (staffed by Specialist Trainees (STs) at nearby Acute Trusts within NCL).

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust itself is a small, specialist mental health Trust,  with a focus on training and education , which includes a post graduate programme for trainee doctors.  We provide a range of outpatient, and mainly psychological, services, though we do not provide acute nor inpatient patient services, and do not have detention facilities,  nor an A&E department

  1. What communication have you received from NHSI and NHSE in regards to moving locum agency doctors on to hospital bank between August 2022 & August 2023?

On August 10th 2023 The Trust’s Chair brought the NHS Employers notice:  https://www.nhsemployers.org/news/high-court-ruling-supply-agency-workers-during-industrial-action to the attention of the Chief People Officer, Chief Clinical Operating Officer and the Associate Director of HR Operations.

  1. What additional communication has your trust received in the year 2024 in regard to moving doctors from agency on to bank?

None.

  1. What, (in both percentage and nominal terms) of your temporary doctor staffing spend went on bank in the last 12 months? Please provide figures for the 12 months previous for comparison

 

Financial Year

(Apr-Mar)

 Agency Doctors Spend

£

 Bank Doctors

Spend

£

 Total Agency & Bank

Annual Spend

£

 Annual Percentage of Temporary Doctor Staffing Spend for Bank Doctors
2021/22 125,881 132,630 469,320 28%
2022/23 343,439 167,524 510,963 33%

 

  1. What set rates do you use for your bank staff at SHO, SpR & Consultant levels?

We currently use the NCL collaborative bank rate, since 2nd January 2024.

  1. How many full time doctor rota gaps are covered long term by bank staff in your trust? How many of these roles are covered at your set bank rates and how many are over these rates?
  2. For the Specialist Trainee (ST) rota, short-term gaps are filled by our own trainees, at their normal pay rate, though we may occasionally use bank staff whom we pay £56/hour as per NCL guidelines

We do not provide cover for long term full time doctor (consultant) rota gaps.

  1. How many doctors have been moved from agency directly to your bank in the last 12 months? Of these, please provide a breakdown of the cost increases or savings that have been made per doctor.

None

  1. What is the most you have spent on a single Bank shift in the last 12 months and what grade/specialty was it to cover? What is the most you have spent on a single agency locum shift in the last 12 months and what grade/speciality was it to cover?

We paid our own consultants via Bank to act down during recent doctors’ strikes at £130/hour and these were the highest paid shifts

  1. Please provide a breakdown as to how you work out the real cost of each bank shift. This should be pay rate, employment taxes (ENI + AL), Pension costs, annual leave and study leave, and third party bank fees.

The real bank cost is based in Basic pay plus the working Time Directive pay of 12.07% which accounts for sickness absence and holiday pay.

  1. When quoting a PAYE rate for your bank staff, is WTR included in this cost or is it an additional cost on top?

Yes, the WTR is included at 12.07%

  1. What % Pension contribution from the trust is paid to bank workers as Employer Contribution?

We make the standard NHS pensions contribution based on the grade. i.e. Locum Consultant 9.8%

  1. What was your total doctors bank spend in 2022 and 2023, what was your agency spend for the same period?

See our response to Q3 above

  1. How many doctors were moved from working via an agency in 2023 on to the bank?

None

  1. Is your bank ran by staff on the hospital’s payroll or via a third party?

Our bank is run by staff on the Trust’s payroll.

  1. If using a 3rd party for your bank services, what is the charge for their services and how is this calculated as part of your bank spend? Do they charge per hour, per shift, or a monthly fixed cost? Not applicable – see above

Not applicable.  See response to Question 13. above.

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