A STRUGGLING health trust believes getting staff to work wherever and however they want will “transform” patient care.

North East London NHS Foundation Trust unveiled its new state-of-the-art agile working space and training centre in Rainham, Havering this week (February 28).

The head office, training, and working space was officially opened by founder of the Academy of Fabulous NHS stuff Roy Lilley and the Mayors of all the borough’s the trust covers – Redbridge, Waltham Forest, Havering, and Barking & Dagenham

It boasts 165 “agile” workspaces, seven meeting rooms, six training rooms, two IT spaces, a boardroom, a shared central workspace, and a meeting pod.

Agile working is being introduced across the NHS to allow administrative and clinical staff to work wherever, whenever, and however they want, to make sure they can spend as much time as possible with patients.

NELFT provides community and mental health services across Redbridge and Waltham Forest, but was given “requires improvement” in its last Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2016.

Its mental health services for children and young people were rated “inadequate” with serious shortcomings flagged up at the Brookside centre in Barley Lane, Goodmayes.

But chief executive John Brouder said: “Agile working will transform the way the trust cares for patients.

“Many trusts allow corporate staff to work agilely, but we wanted to go further and equip nursing staff with the tools to spend more time with their patients and less time in an office doing admin.

“Of course, it’s not possible for all staff to work agilely - but we will be rolling out devices to as many as possible as there are obvious benefits.

“Staff are able to use mobile devices while visiting in the community which frees up their time and allows them longer to speak with the patient.

“These steps are making staff more efficient and delivering a better service for patients.”