Out of hours services to support over Christmas

30 September 2021 By Michael Bowyer

​With Christmas approaching it’s important to start considering your resourcing strategy so your facility can continue to cope with increased demand. Filling rotas during the festive period can be challenging as many healthcare professionals and medical colleagues will be looking to take some time off to spend it with family and friends. In addition, as the temperatures start to drop seasonal illnesses like flu and a potential third wave of Covid may lead to an increase in staff sick absences or self-isolation cases.

To help overcome seasonal resourcing challenges, partnering with a staffing agency like Medical Staffing will be a good way to ensure your business continues to thrive over Christmas. We have made it as easy as possible to get out-of-hours services to help support with hard to fill rotas, short notice or block bookings, so that you can continue to provide high standards of patient care. We know how difficult this period can be with resourcing the appropriate skilled professionals who can jump in on a shift, often last minute, and strive to accommodate the staffing challenges you may face.

Resourcing challenges to overcome at Xmas

We know that healthcare doesn’t stop over Christmas! If anything, incidents rise and rotas become harder to fill. We also don’t know how severe a potential third wave of Covid-19 could be and how effective the UK’s vaccination efforts will prove, so planning ahead is more important than ever this winter. Shift Managers or Staff Rota Planners may be wondering how to overcome challenges such as:

  • How to navigate resourcing during the Christmas holidays, as many healthcare professionals choose to spend this period with loved ones or have commitments due to childcare requirements.

  • How to cope with the increase in emergency cases due to Christmas parties and New Year’s Eve, where things can often get out of hand with revellers!

  • How to manage last-minute staff requirements due to healthcare professionals being unable to make it into the faculty due to extreme weather conditions.

Trying to fill the less desirable shifts, such as those that are during anti-social hours, can be challenging at the best of times, let alone during Christmas when even the most willing think more carefully about when they work due to various friend and family festivities.

Medical Staffing out-of-hours support

During Christmas, healthcare organisations certainly don’t need the additional stress caused by a clunky recruitment process that costs time and money, but rather could benefit from taking advantage of out-of-hours staffing services to ensure the safety of staff and patients. Other benefits of partnering with an agency include:

  • Instant access to an extensive talent pool or ‘staff bank’ of compliant healthcare professionals

  • Increased time-to-hire

  • Ability to fill last-minute shifts

At Medical Staffing, we have tried to make our out-of-hours services as easy as possible to access to ensure the continuity of care at your organisation. Our team of expert consultants are on hand 24/7 no matter whether it’s Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Eve, or any other bank holiday! We are here to support you with overcoming resourcing challenges every day of the year, as we know that there are no holidays for healthcare provision! As a multidisciplinary clinical workforce supplier, our out-of-hours services include:

Advice on clinician skills mix

Our mission is to ensure the right healthcare staff with the right skills, are in the right place at the right time. When struggling to fill hard-to-fill rotas, we have tailored skill mixes so that no shift goes understaffed. During staff shortages, we will advise on whether you can fill the shift with ACPs or pharmacists to help complement the GP workforce.

Bespoke interviewing

We can provide bespoke interviewing for suitability for placement into a client using their questions framework. These questions make the interview process more efficient and can support your hiring decisions, reducing the amount of time you spend shortlisting poor quality candidates that don’t have the right attitude, strengths, skills, or values that align with your healthcare organisation.

24 hours on call for cover

We’ve made it as easy as possible to get the out-of-hours, short notice or block bookings you need to fill your rotas. We can respond swiftly to your requirements, placing reliable, professional staff within hours or at extremely short notice for time critical situations.

Bespoke quality standards

We provide bespoke quality standards that are dual branded and signed by the candidate and given to your organisation’s operations team. This will dictate, for example, that the candidate will arrive ready to start on time and will assess and average X amount of patients per hour.

How to access the healthcare professionals you need quickly over Xmas

Having access to flexible and quickly deployed skill mixes is vital for filling rotas in the most cost-effective way during the Christmas period, especially when there is so much pressure on the NHS and private facilities to provide continuing standards of exceptional patient care.

​Here at Medical Staffing, we’ve made it our mission to find the best ways to provide outstanding healthcare talent based on the individual – and often changing – needs of an organisation.

​We partner with your facility, getting to know your level of service, processes and systems. This allows us to provide or suggest a suite of clinical workforce solutions. Plus, we’re capable of mobilising a large multidisciplinary team at scale and short notice to support not only your vaccination programmes but also support the day-to-day running of your facility or practice, out of hours, or in block bookings.

​If you would like to discuss staffing issues, find flexible resourcing solutions to suit your organisation's individual needs, or just have some questions answered, we would be happy to speak with you.

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