Medical Agency Cascade

The request was partially successful.

Dear Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust,

In relation to your supply of medical (doctor) temporary workers, please could you provide the answers to the following questions?

1) Which locum/staffing agencies have you engaged to be part of your medical (doctors) agency cascade? Please provide the names of the agencies split into the relevant tiers. If you do not use a tier system, please explain how vacancies are cascaded with agencies.

2) Please provide a breakdown of the proportion of medical (doctor) locum hours booked through each of these tiers for the last three years. If this is not available, please provide a breakdown of the proportion of medical (doctor) locum spend incurred through each of these tiers for the last three years. If only recent years are available, please provide what you have.

3) What is the protocol for releasing medical (doctor) vacancies to each of your tiers?

4) When are the current arrangements relating to your agency cascade in place until?

Yours faithfully,

James King

FOI, Rf (ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST), Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

Dear Mr King

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act. The reference for this request is noted in the subject header above.

We will always try to respond to requests within 20 working days. The trust is under unprecedented pressure in dealing with COVID-19, and we hope you will understand that we must always prioritise the care of patients, and in doing so, there may be a delay in responding to requests at this time. We will endeavour to ensure that any delay in responding is kept to an absolute minimum.

We are asking the public to be mindful when requesting information from the trust and to consider if it is absolutely necessary at this critical time when resources are extremely stretched, or whether a request could be submitted at a later date. If you would like to withdraw your request to resubmit in the future please contact us.

We want to thank you in advance for your patience and understanding at this difficult time.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Team
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

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Dear FOI, Rf (ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST),

Thank you for acknowledging our FOI response. We understand that due to the COVID-19 pandemic your response to this request will have been delayed, however it has been far longer than the standard 20 working days for you to provide the information requested.
Could you provide an estimate to when this request will be completed?

Yours sincerely,

James King

FOI, Rf (ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST), Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

1 Attachment

 

   

[1]http://freenet/docs/Comms/Toolkit/020%20...

Royal Free London Group Headquarters

Anne Bryans House

77 Fleet Road

London NW3 2QH

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

Dear Mr King

 

Thank you for submitting a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  Please find the response below and apologies for
the delay.

 

This response covers the hospitals and services managed by the Royal Free
London NHS Foundation Trust, namely the Royal Free Hospital, Barnet
Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital and associated group services.  

 

The response

 

 1. Which locum/staffing agencies have you engaged to be part of your
medical (doctors) agency cascade? Please provide the names of the
agencies split into the relevant tiers. If you do not use a tier
system, please explain how vacancies are cascaded with agencies.

 

Area Tier 1 Tier 2
A&E Medacs/Blue Cross ID Medical
Medicine Medacs ID Medical/Blue Cross/
Holt
Surgery Medacs/ID Medical Blue Cross
Specialties Medacs/ ID Medical/ Blue Cross/  
Pathology Group

 

 

 2. Please provide a breakdown of the proportion of medical (doctor) locum
hours booked through each of these tiers for the last three years. If
this is not available, please provide a breakdown of the proportion of
medical (doctor) locum spend incurred through each of these tiers for
the last three years. If only recent years are available, please
provide what you have.

 

Not recorded

 

Total fill rate of 11.66% for agency shifts over last three years.

 

 3. What is the protocol for releasing medical (doctor) vacancies to each
of your tiers?

 

Currently released via email

 

 4. When are the current arrangements relating to your agency cascade in
place until?

 

February 2022

 

Your appeal rights

 

I hope that this response deals with your enquiry to your satisfaction,
however if not you have two options:

 

·        If you do not feel that we have provided you with the information
you requested, you may contact us again and state what information you
still require.  However if you ask for additional and/or different
information this will be dealt with as a new request.

 

·        All applicants have the right of appeal and can request an
internal review.  The internal review must be focused on the original
request and should identify how the trust’s response failed to answer your
information request and explain what you would like us to review.  Appeals
should be made in writing, within 40 working days of the date of the
response, and addressed to Ms Emma Kearney, chief communications officer,
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust at [2][email address] .

 

If you are not satisfied with the internal review, you can appeal to the
Information Commissioner.  The contact details are: Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF, telephone 01625 545 700 or see [3]www.ico.org.uk

 

Open Government Licence

 

The trust allows you to reuse this information under the Open Government
Licence found at the following [4]link. 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

The Freedom of Information Team

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

 

 

 

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Dear FOI, Rf (ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST),

Thank you for providing the tiers used for each agency. Please could you provide the hours/spend for each agency over the past three years? If only more recent data is available, please provide what you have.

Yours sincerely,

James King

FOI, Rf (ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST), Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

Dear Mr King

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act. The reference for this request is noted in the subject header above.

You will receive a response from us within 20 working days of receipt or an explanation as to why this is not possible.

Yours sincerely,

The Freedom of Information Team
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

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FOI, Rf (ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST), Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

1 Attachment

 

 

   

[1]http://freenet/docs/Comms/Toolkit/020%20...

Royal Free London Group Headquarters

Anne Bryans House

77 Fleet Road

London NW3 2QH

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Dear Mr King

 

Thank you for submitting a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  Please find the response below.  This response
covers the hospitals and services managed by the Royal Free London NHS
Foundation Trust, namely the Royal Free Hospital, Barnet Hospital and
Chase Farm Hospital and associated group services.  

 

The response

 

Medacs;                               43,621 hours      88698.57 spend

ID Medical;                         19,431 hours      19176.87 spend

Blue Cross;                         11,037 hours      12781.11 spend

Holt;                                      8,759 hours         29544.55
spend

Pathology Group;            5,495 hours         17021.40 spend

 

The above figures are for the financial year 2020-2021

 

Your appeal rights

 

I hope that this response deals with your enquiry to your satisfaction,
however if not you have two options:

 

·        If you do not feel that we have provided you with the information
you requested, you may contact us again and state what information you
still require.  However if you ask for additional and/or different
information this will be dealt with as a new request.

 

·        All applicants have the right of appeal and can request an
internal review.  The internal review must be focused on the original
request and should identify how the trust’s response failed to answer your
information request and explain what you would like us to review.  Appeals
should be made in writing, within 40 working days of the date of the
response, and addressed to Ms Emma Kearney, chief communications officer,
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust at [2][email address] .

 

If you are not satisfied with the internal review, you can appeal to the
Information Commissioner.  The contact details are: Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF, telephone 01625 545 700 or see [3]www.ico.org.uk

 

Open Government Licence

 

The trust allows you to reuse this information under the Open Government
Licence found at the following [4]link. 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

The Freedom of Information Team

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

 

 

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