Locum’s Nest, an app that connects doctors to locum work in hospitals, has raised GBP3 million in further funding from Albion Capital Group, an independent investment manager, and IDO Investments.
Locum’s Nest, an app that connects doctors to locum work in hospitals, has raised GBP3 million in further funding from IDO Investments and Albion Capital Group, an independent investment manager.
The new funding takes the total investment in Locum’s Nest to GBP4.2 million.
Locum’s Nest is the mobile-first platform connecting doctors to temporary work in healthcare organisations, whilst helping hospital staff managers cut out the inefficient and expensive agency middleman.
Traditionally, hospitals looking for locum staff to fill empty shifts paid recruitment agencies a percentage commission of the doctors’ salary, commonly exceeding GBP100 per shift. In the last year alone, NHS trusts paid recruitment agencies an estimated GBP235 million in commissions, equating to almost 25 per cent of the combined financial deficit of GBP960 million reported by trusts for 2017/18. Locum’s Nest’s pay-as-you-go model charges a small one-off administration fee per successfully filled shift, delivering considerable savings for a cash-strapped NHS which could be used to finance new medical equipment and hire more permanent staff. By digitising hospital staff banks (hospitals’ own network of doctors) and increasing their size and efficiency by over 1000 per cent, NHS trusts can expect to realise another GBP250 million in savings through using NHS doctors rather than hiring through agencies.
The Locum’s Nest app was created by Nicholas Andreou and Ahmed Shahrabani, both ex-NHS doctors who became frustrated at the way hospitals were held over a barrel by recruitment agencies when looking for doctors. Together they worked to harness technology to come up with a doctor recruitment solution for the NHS that would cut out the middlemen and give control back to hospitals.
Andreou says: “We are truly delighted that Albion Capital and IDO have combined to invest in the next stage of our growth. Albion Capital understands digital health and how healthcare can be transformed through technologies such as ours. They realised the huge potential of Locum’s Nest supporting Locum’s Nest with start-up funding in June last year.
Shahrabani adds: “Todays’ news is good for the NHS and good for patients too. It is well known that the NHS is experiencing a recruitment crisis. In the last full financial year the NHS spent GBP2.4billion on agency staff to cover vacancies, which means at least GBP235 million was spent on recruitment agency commissions, a ludicrously high amount which could otherwise have been used to finance other areas of clinical improvements that would directly benefit patients. From the data we already have, we know the NHS could claw back up to GBP500 million of this year’s projected Trust overspend.”
Will Fraser-Allen, Deputy Managing Partner at Albion Capital says: “Locum’s Nest is a clear demonstration of how the NHS can use technology to drive performance improvement by disrupting the expensive locum recruitment agency model and generating considerable savings for the Exchequer. The Locum’s Nest team has achieved a great deal in a short timeframe and we are proud to support the business with additional funding. We look forward to working with them to deliver their growth strategy.”
Locum’s Nest has already matched more than 40,000 doctors to shifts, across fifteen NHS Hospitals and nearly 100 GP Practices. It has helped to cover hundreds of thousands of hours treating patients with emergency and chronic conditions. One NHS Trust saved GBP3.2 million in locum agency fees in just 12 months – enough to purchase two new MRI scanners for the hospital or pay the salaries of 70 extra full-time junior doctors for a year. Another Trust saved a sizeable GBP4.9 million in two years.
