Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust working in partnership with HCL Clarity

London, 29 November 2012 – Innovative workforce management platform, HCL Clarity, is set to be implemented at Worcestershire Royal Hospitals Trust this month.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, which has an annual health budget of about £320m, is facing a series of significant financial challenges to provide sustainable services to its 570,000 residents.

HR Director Bev Edgar says the Trust needs to find £50m savings over three years as part of the £200m efficiency target for Worcestershire as a whole.

“Our Trust’s three sites, Worcester Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and Treatment Centre and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, will be working in partnership with HCL to meet these resourcing challenges in respect of middle grade and specialist doctors. This collaborative pilot will reduce our cost of agency staffing and deliver efficiencies and allow us to reinvest those savings into patient care.” Ms Edgar said.

Worcester Acute Hospitals Trust carries out more than 95,000 planned and emergency operations each year, with 140,000 A&E attendances and 500,000 outpatient appointments.

HCL Workforce solutions Chief Executive Stephen Burke confirmed the partnership, adding HCL was delighted with the opportunity to add value.

 “The Trust is currently working towards become a Foundation Trust and a key element of this goal is to identify innovative ways to deliver efficiency savings without compromising patient care. HCL Clarity delivers this and more,” Mr Burke said.

HCL Clarity is a managed service which controls and streamlines the entire temporary worker process from start to finish, taking the agency staff headache away from Trusts.

“We developed HCL Clarity specifically for the NHS – we know Trusts want to regain control and reduce costs in the face of their £20bn savings target, and with staffing costs accounting for nearly two thirds of the NHS annual budget it’s clear to see HCL Clarity’s potential to deliver huge savings without affecting front line services,” He said.