All Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Trusts have turned to the same digital e-rostering solution from RLDatix to improve patient safety and reduce agency spend.

All five acute Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts across Northern Ireland have signed up to RLDatix’s e-rostering solution, Allocate Optima, bringing cohesion across the trusts when it comes to staffing.

Belfast HSC, South Eastern HSC and Southern HSC have been using the Allocate solution for several years. This year also saw Northern HSC and Western HSC sign up for the solution, bringing benefits to clinical and non-clinical staff across Northern Ireland.

It means that all trusts will be able to support their staff’s wellbeing by ensuring wards have the right skill sets available at the right time. In addition, agency spend can be reduced by enabling and encouraging both substantive and bank staff to book shifts easily and remotely.

Staff will be able to work across the different health trusts seamlessly, which will allow each of the five trusts to flex up or down staffing levels according to patient needs.

Arti Fiaz, managing director UK&I, RLDatix, said: “ Our partnership with the five Health Trusts in Northern Ireland will mean a safer and more cohesive joined-up healthcare system for patients and staff across Northern Ireland.

“We know that for patients, healthcare needs go beyond bricks and mortar and organisational limits. This move will mean patients and staff alike will benefit from a system that breaks down geographical and organisational boundaries and realises the benefits we know working collaboratively can bring.”

The Allocate Optima solution allows the trusts to create complex rotas quickly and efficiently. All staff – whether permanent or temporary – are brought into a single efficient roster, that allows managers to match supply and demand in complex and rapidly-changing environments.

It’s been a busy few weeks for the HSC trusts in Northern Ireland – as they also went live with Clinisys WinPath recently as part of a digital transformation project.