Connecting clinical expertise to patient care
What is NHS Emeritus?
NHS Emeritus is an initiative which connects recently retired and peri-retired clinicians across England, with NHS providers of acute care who need the help only experienced clinicians can offer. NHS Emeritus enables providers to engage clinicians for activities such as outpatient planned care, teaching and education.
Whilst recognising that much activity will be in-person, NHS Emeritus aims to make optimal use of technology, enabling clinicians to also deliver care remotely, when clinically appropriate. In this way, members of NHS Emeritus can work flexibly, fitting in as much or as little as they would like to, around their other interests and commitments.
Consultants and Specialty and Associate Specialist (SAS) doctors are eligible to participate as long as they are on the medical register of the General Medical Council (GMC) and hold a licence to practice. Consultants must also be on the specialist register.
Benefits of registering as a provider
- Access to top-level, highly experienced consultants and Specialty and Associate Specialist (SAS) doctors nationally
- Additional clinical support for your internal workforce by helping to fill specialism gaps and increasing capacity for elective recovery
- Enabler to reduce waiting lists by matching specialist clinicians to clinical assignments including direct clinical care and supporting professional activities
- Provides opportunities to promote assignments for in-person cover or remote delivery
- Fast-tracked onboarding and training for trust staff and teams to the TempRE digital platform
- No joining fees or service fees apply – provides an alternative to sourcing short-medium cover via agency
- Easy tracking and management of bookings using the TempRE workforce management platform
Frequently Asked Questions
Clinicians who have expressed interest in the pilot and meet the criteria to join will be invited to register.
Once the necessary pre-employment checks have taken place, the clinician will be onboarded by NHS North of England Care System Support (NECS), the lead employing organisation. A profile will be created for the consultant within TempRE, a job matching platform, and the consultant will be provided with log in details.
TempRE is Liaison Workforce’s temporary workforce management platform that NHS Emeritus uses to match consultants to clinical assignments, for booking and timesheet submission and authorisation.
Clinicians will receive digital notifications of assignments based on their speciality, sub-specialisms and interest in performing supporting professional activities, as nominated within their unique profile. Using the TempRE website or mii mobile-enabled app, consultants can signal their interest and availability for assignments.
Providers sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NHS England and the lead employing organisation, NHS North of England Care System Support (NECS).
After signing the MOU, and onboarding to the TempRE cloud-based platform, providers can upload assignments of clinical activities that require cover remotely or in person on hospital sites. These activities include outpatient clinics, remote consultations, advice and guidance, clinical prioritisation, and diagnostic reporting. Providers may also use NHS Emeritus for supporting professional activities such as appraisal (consultant as appraiser), educational supervision and clinical supervision.
Providers are alerted once NHS Emeritus clinicians have nominated their availability to perform an assignment. Using TempRE, providers review the different profiles and compliance documents, and books the clinician of their choice. Providers are responsible for providing local induction and arranging delivery of clinical activity with the consultant. Patients are booked by the provider in the normal way.
On completion of the assignment, the consultant submits an electronic timesheet for authorisation using the mii app. Clinicians can book confirmations of assignments, submit timesheets and view payslips using the mii app.
The pilot has been commissioned to support the delivery of non-admitted, planned care, teaching and education. Providers of acute care can utilise NHS Emeritus to source cover for the following clinical activities:
- Advice and guidance
- Clinical prioritisation (including triage of referrals and prioritisation of waiting lists)
- Outpatient clinics – face-to-face (onsite)
- Outpatient clinics – video and telephone (onsite or remote)
- Clinical diagnostic work – diagnostic sessions and reporting
- Clinical session (onsite) – including elective operating sessions
- Appraisals (as appraiser)
- Clinical supervision
- Educational supervision
- Risk and governance
- Clinical Audit
Consultants and SAS doctors can become members of NHS Emeritus and access the NECS Emeritus Support service at no cost. The costs of pre-employment checks are borne centrally by NHS England.
There is also no cost to NHS providers to use the TempRE platform to find suitable cover for their assignments. Providers are responsible for paying for the clinician’s time based on payrates nominated in assignments. Providers will be responsible for any other operational costs relating to clinical activity, and for provision of any IT equipment and access requirements.
As a provider trust, your organisation will be responsible for:
- Submitting an expression of interest
- Executing the Memorandum of Understanding agreement with NHS England and NECS
- Completing an onboarding document provided by Liaison Workforce
- Completing onboarding to the TempRE platform, including staff training
- Entering details of assignments
- Nominating the rate of pay
- Selecting and booking NHS Emeritus doctors
- Providing the usual induction process and activities for clinical staff
- Providing any equipment, access and training required, including IT systems
- Providing the usual administrative support for clinical activity
- Booking patient appointments in the usual way
- Approving timesheets on the TempRE platform
- Paying for clinician’s time for work performed, as cross-charged by the NECS, the lead employing organisation, within the agreed terms as set out in the Memorandum of Understanding
Led by the Outpatient Recovery and Transformation Programme, NHS England, the initial phase of the NHS Emeritus pilot will run until the end of September 2024.
Register your interest to access NHS Emeritus as a provider organisation
Expression of interest form
The NHS Emeritus pilot is for NHS providers of acute care across England.
After completing the expression of interest, we will be in contact to provide further information and next steps for your organisation to join NHS Emeritus.