Meet Dr Anas Nader, co-founder of Patchwork Health

I’m Dr Anas Nader, co-founder and CEO of Patchwork Health.

Can you summarise the Patchwork Health mission?

Patchwork Health is on a mission to transform health and care staffing for the better. 

Right now, working in health or care means a lack of flexibility, high rates of staff burnout, and poor retention. We partner with the NHS to deliver services and technology to help change that. 

We want to see a health service which is run efficiently and cost-effectively, with happy, empowered staff who are fully supported to deliver the best care to patients. 

What’s the problem you’re working to solve? 

The NHS is facing a staffing crisis. According to a recent BMA survey, 1 in 5 doctors are considering leaving the NHS for another career  as a result of excessive workload, stress and burnout. This will add to the soaring number of vacancies - a figure which currently stands close to 90,000 in England.

This situation is fuelled by the inefficient systems which dictate how the NHS workforce is deployed. These systems are holding back collaboration, failing to prioritise workers’ happiness and wellbeing, and, ultimately, preventing patients from receiving the optimum level of care.

To retain the talented and dedicated workers that make up the NHS, we need a completely different approach.

What inspired you to found Patchwork Health?  

As junior doctors, my co-founder, Dr Jing Ouyang, and I both experienced the stress and exhaustion of working in the NHS. We struggled to take any time off to recover or to study for our exams, and the complete lack of career flexibility took its toll on our mental health.

All around us, we saw colleagues burning out and seriously considering leaving the jobs they loved and spent so many years training for. We also learnt that the NHS was spending huge amounts of money on temporary staff to fill the vacancies when staff did quit or wards were understaffed.  

After a lot of research, Jing and I decided that a tech-led solution - delivered in parallel with an expert, on-the-ground support service - could solve the twin problems of workforce burnout and inefficient NHS staffing systems. 

What is your product? 

We have developed a unique, innovative approach which we call ‘Outcomes-Based Staffing’. This method of workforce management combines technology and services to connect the whole of healthcare: allowing organisations to collaborate across boundaries, giving workers control over their own schedules, and ensuring the patient receives exceptional care.

By putting NHS staff back at the centre, Outcomes-Based Staffing has the power to unlock the hidden capacity in the workforce. By breaking through red tape, it can help relieve pressure on exhausted health and social care staff. By streamlining and digitising processes, Outcomes-Based Staffing can save money and administrative time for workers, managers and organisations. 

Who are your customers? 

Patchwork Health works in partnership with primary and secondary care services across the UK. We’re helping tens of thousands of NHS staff members - from doctors and nurses to porters and pharmacy staff - to work flexibly across multiple locations, whilst also supporting HR and admin teams to operate efficiently and improve patient safety.

How does having a background as a doctor influence the way you run a healthtech company? 

Having years of on-the-ground, frontline experience of working for the NHS has been invaluable for me as a founder and as a CEO. 

As well as allowing me to truly understand where the pain points are in the system, the time I’ve spent both on hospital floor and in conversation with managers has allowed me to identify the most impactful ways of helping my NHS colleagues and their patients. 

My credentials also help me to build a relationship with the customers and the end-users of our solution. Everyone who works for the NHS is motivated by securing best outcomes for patients, so this is an instant point of connection that we can align on.

What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs looking to work with the NHS?

Delivering a solution or service to the NHS is both an honour and a huge responsibility. If you want to achieve this successfully, you must first align your own priorities and ambitions to those of the NHS - which means putting the best interests of patients and NHS staff ahead of profit. 

A partnership with the NHS must work differently from other, more transactional, vendor-customer relationships. You must remain closely involved in the roll-out and customisation process, on hand to refine and troubleshoot whenever necessary. 

It’s also important to win the trust of the clinicians who’ll ultimately be using your solution or service. This means adhering to the highest standards of safety and data security, and creating something that is inherently user-friendly, and designed to reduce the workload of employers and admin teams.

What are your ambitions for Patchwork Health over the next five years? 

We’re marking a step change in how NHS Trusts and healthcare organisations manage their workforce and support their staff. The last year has shown us the power of the NHS when it’s allowed to truly collaborate. Now it’s time to harness that energy and push for real transformation. 

We’re working hard with our partner Trusts to make Outcomes-Based Staffing a success. Over the next five years we’re hoping to support many more healthcare organisations to embrace this solution, laying the foundation for a stronger, happier, healthier NHS for everyone.