Patient safety requires that proven processes are in place for each healthcare activity and then following them. Then regularly auditing performance to ensure the process is followed correctly. And finally ensuring the necessary resources are in place to support the whole system.

This applies to recruiting and managing staff for any healthcare setting. In the A24 Group we’ve over 100 staff dedicated just to Compliance, to follow up all references and carry out background checks and confirm mandatory training is up to date.

It requires some 2,000+ phone calls daily to register agency workers, with an average of 30 calls to validate just one nurse’s application. Weekly the department uploads 24,000+ files to the specialist computer system (which required 100,000 hours of development time). The team sends 1,000+ emails and nearly 500 faxes weekly.

The whole process – from recruitment through to registration and selection of an agency worker for a shift, and monitoring of results and payments – is audited regularly. Any complaint or deviation from the process is analysed and assessed, and reported to at board level. This means that changes are made as soon as they are required.

Always, at the start and end of the process, the focus is on the safety and welfare of each patient that is in receipt of care by the doctors, nurses and HCAs that are registered with the agency.