The platform provides medics with greater control and flexibility over their working hours, and enables departments to plan shifts strategically and in line with patient demand.

North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust has launched a new e-rostering platform aimed at boosting wellbeing and retention for its medics and to improve workforce reporting.

The platform, built and delivered in partnership with healthcare workforce specialists Patchwork Health, gives managers access to all rostering, rota-building and leave management activities through a single system. By enhancing workforce visibility in this way, it will be easier for departmental rotas to be planned efficiently and strategically in response to patient demand and staff availability.

Medics can use a connected app to view their rotas and submit leave requests, providing them greater control over their working hours, and more flexibility to manage their schedule alongside other personal and professional commitments.

As well as making it easier for staff to be rostered and deployed flexibly in line with demand, the new platform is simplifying workforce reporting by surfacing a wealth of data insights across all participating departments. This is helping managers to more easily and efficiently manage compliance checks, and giving them greater visibility of available workers to help reduce reliance on costly third-party agencies to fill staffing gaps. A built-in exception reporting platform is also making it easier for medics to flag any additional hours they work outside of their contracted rota, helping to optimise staff wellbeing and patient safety, and protect doctors’ training time.

Since launching the new e-rostering system in December 2023, the trust has already seen a positive impact on access and engagement for medics and more flexible, efficient rota planning. So far, the platform has been rolled out to three divisions – General and Acute Medicine, General Surgery, and Women’s and Children’s – at West Cumberland Hospital and Cumberland Infirmary.

Dr Adrian Clements, Executive Medical Director at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are excited to be working with Patchwork Health to deliver the trusts medical e-rostering, recognising the needs of our staff for an intuitive and flexible solution to cover the medical workforce. The patchwork team have been superb at ensuring a safe and supportive roll out to our first cohorts of staff giving us a smooth and seamless switch over. Supporting us to find new ways to actualise flexible working and service demands, we look forward to expanding our staffing reach across wider users and additional departments as well as introducing currently untapped capabilities with the new system.”

Dr Anas Nader, CEO and Co-Founder at Patchwork Health, commented “We’re delighted to be working with North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust to support them in delivering a transformative new rostering system for their medical workforce. As services face intensifying patient demand and national staff shortages continue to rise, flexible, data-led staffing has never been more crucial. It’s encouraging to see trusts like North Cumbria Integrated Care paving the way through innovation to unlock this level of flexibility and insight. We look forward to continuing our work together, helping to make rostering simpler and more sustainable for clinicians and managers alike.”