Case Study: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust reduces medical agency spend with NHS Employers

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust - Customer Case Study

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) is one of the largest NHS trusts in England, serving a wide regional population and managing a complex workforce of around 17,000 staff. The trust needed a better way to reduce medical agency spend, improve rota coverage, and strengthen control over temporary staffing, while supporting patient safety, quality, and financial sustainability. NHS Employers supported the trust with a central deployment service, e-rostering, and a neutral vendor approach for agency bookings.

NHS Employers helped LTHT build an internal medical bank, centralise management of sickness, leave, swaps and vacancies, and streamline agency recruitment through a web-based neutral vendor platform. The result was a major shift away from agency reliance, with bank doctors filling 70% of medical locum shifts in 2017 compared with 80% filled by agency in 2014, and medical and dental agency spend falling from £13.3m in 2014/15 to £4.4m in 2016/17. The trust also reported improved governance, less bureaucracy, better real-time spend visibility, and estimated savings of £5m over three years, with actual savings even higher.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust