University Hospital Southampton (UHS) had multiple nurse vacancies they were seeking to fill and were looking for Nurses across various specialty areas. The combination of the NHS pay freeze, Brexit, an ageing population and workforce, the removal of the nursing bursary and the expanding responsibilities placed on nurses were all exacerbating the pressure on the system – resulting in high agency and bank spend.

UHS had plenty of experience in overseas recruitment, but was struggling with the length of time it was taking for nurses to clear the hurdles in order to move to the UK. As a new agency, My Healthcare Recruit offered a “no win, no fee” approach – no costs were payable until the nurses arrived and were in post in the UK, using the policy of only supplying Filipino nurses for interview who had already passed their English Language test speeded up the time to hire.

UHS Overseas Education Lead, Rachel Palmer, liked the video interviewing tool My Healthcare Recruit used commenting that “it really helped to streamline the process. We used the platform to pre-assess the candidates’ skills via an online test and generally the process worked a lot more reliably than Skype meaning that I could maximise my interview time efficiently and avoid candidate delay resulting in more efficient interview scheduling.”

The team had initially started with a pilot request of only 10 nurses, but seeing the calibre and quality of the nurses My Healthcare provided, they decided to continue using their service.

Within six months of commencing interviews, UHS had built a pipeline of almost 100 nurses from My Healthcare with an average offer to arrival time of 4.5 months. On average, 80% of the candidates My Healthcare presented for interview received offers.

UHS Head of Resourcing Brenda Carter described My Healthcare as “greatly exceeding expectations”. She commented “Working with My Healthcare Recruit has completely transformed the speed of our nurse recruitment from The Philippines; we’ve taken off a year from offer to start date in the U.K. and removed the costs, in time and money, of recruitment trips. The impact has been so dramatic that it has forced us to re-consider how we induct these nurses given the volume. That being said, it is a great problem to have at a time when finding enough high quality nurses is so challenging“.

She also commented…”What I particularly liked is that My Healthcare listened to our problems and then tailored their solution to help us. For example, we were looking for support to assist us in the delivery of OSCE training and My Healthcare organised a specialist on-site OSCE Bootcamp for us.”

One of the nurses who has been deployed to UHS via My Healthcare Recruit, Irysh Gerbolingo has been happy with the way her deployment to UHS has been handled. “The whole relocation process has been very smooth – with excellent organisation both prior to leaving the Philippines and also on our arrival…Sometimes it’s the small things that make a difference, like being given an extra luggage allowance so we could bring our favourite foods from home to the UK with us. Choosing My Healthcare Recruit is one of the best decisions I have ever made. Definitely an answer to my prayers!”

HR Operations Manager, Kate Eyres described the partnership as “reassuring” from a Compliance perspective. “My Healthcare were very organised when it came to providing the required documentation for the Certificates of Sponsorship and all the references…It can be a hassle to try and chase these down so receiving them ‘right first time’ was a welcome relief from my point of view.”

UHS continue to work with My Healthcare to provide them with a steady supply of Filipino nurses.