Patchwork Health Launches AI-Powered ‘Preference-Based Rostering’ for NHS Clinicians
•February 17, 2026
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Why It Matters
The tool directly tackles the NHS staffing shortage and rising agency spend, offering a scalable way to improve clinician satisfaction while delivering measurable cost savings.
Key Takeaways
- •AI rosters meet 98% negative preferences
- •Shift gaps cut 97% in trial
- •Temporary staffing costs fell 98%
- •Improves clinician retention and morale
- •Adopted by over half NHS Trusts
Pulse Analysis
The NHS has been wrestling with a chronic workforce shortage, amplified by post‑pandemic pressures and a surge in agency reliance. Patchwork Health’s Preference‑Based Rostering injects artificial intelligence into the scheduling process, translating thousands of individual shift wishes into a single, compliant roster within minutes. This rapid, data‑rich approach not only reduces administrative overhead but also aligns staffing levels with real‑time service demand, addressing a pain point that traditional legacy systems have failed to solve.
At the core of the solution is a proprietary algorithm that balances negative and positive shift preferences, distributes night and weekend duties equitably, and enforces statutory staffing thresholds. By automating these complex calculations, managers gain visibility into staffing gaps before they become critical, while clinicians enjoy unprecedented control over their work‑life balance. The result is a more transparent, flexible schedule that respects both employee wellbeing and operational efficiency, a combination that many health systems consider mutually exclusive.
Financially, the early trial data are compelling: a 97% reduction in unfilled shifts translated into a 98% drop in temporary staffing expenses, shrinking costs from £18,000 to £400 over ten weeks. Extrapolated across the NHS, such savings could amount to hundreds of millions of pounds annually. Beyond the bottom line, the technology promises to alleviate burnout, improve retention, and ultimately enhance patient care quality, setting a new benchmark for digital transformation in public health workforce management.
Patchwork Health launches AI-powered ‘Preference-Based Rostering’ for NHS clinicians
NHS Trusts across the UK are embracing a new ‘Preference‑Based Rostering’ tool developed by Patchwork Health, the leading NHS workforce management platform.
The AI‑powered solution was designed and built by a team of healthcare veterans – including co‑founders Dr Anas Nader and Dr Jing Ouyang – and is set to transform the way NHS hospitals staff their wards.
Using a bespoke AI algorithm, this ground‑breaking technology instantly transforms a web of competing clinician shift preferences and service demands into flexible, compliant and fair rosters. Not only does this give clinicians greater control than ever before over their rotas, but the system also reduces the admin burden on overrun management teams and dramatically reduces shift gaps.
In minutes, the AI can design tailored rosters for NHS hospital departments, taking into account thousands of job‑planning permutations and clinical preferences – a complex process that traditionally takes days or even weeks. The technology distributes night shifts, weekend work and long shifts fairly, factors in both negative and positive shift preferences of individual clinicians, and optimises scheduling so that shift gaps are dramatically reduced.
The system comes at a crucial time, as the NHS battles an ongoing staff‑retention crisis, while the government is pushing Trusts to make major cuts to their use of temporary agency workers to fill frontline vacancies. Preference‑Based Rostering is designed to address these twin pressures head‑on.
Legacy rostering systems are a constant source of frustration for NHS staff. In a recent survey conducted by the Royal College of Physicians, just 38 % of resident doctors described their current rota system as “easy to use,” while 43 % were unable to request leave before rotas were published, restricting their ability to plan life outside work.
By contrast, modelling conducted by Patchwork shows the new AI tool is able to generate rosters that meet 98 % of negative clinician preferences from the moment they’re created. This means managers and staff will no longer be forced to go back‑and‑forth making manual changes to rosters to accommodate clinician preferences after they’re published. By giving clinicians real autonomy over their roster patterns and the way they work, the platform is set to improve staff satisfaction levels and retention.
As well as delivering much‑needed change for clinicians, Patchwork’s AI‑optimised rostering system also accounts for the needs of managers and organisations across the NHS. The technology produces rosters that adhere to minimum staffing levels, compliance requirements and service demand, driving transformative time and cost savings. Adopting the tool will improve Trusts’ ability to manage the delicate balance between offering greater flexibility for clinicians and maintaining a cost‑effective approach to service delivery.
Early trials of the technology have produced impressive results. Patchwork created a 10‑week work schedule for a real NHS ward, and compared the impact of using its Preference‑Based Rostering platform with a traditional roster‑building process. Across the 10‑week period, the roster created by Patchwork’s new tool cut unfilled shifts by 97 %.
This led to a 98 % reduction in temporary staffing costs – down from £18,000 to just £400. Given the impact seen on this one ward alone in just 10 weeks, the potential savings that would come with nationwide adoption of the tech would be enormous.
Dr Anas Nader, co‑founder and CEO at Patchwork Health, commented:
“Traditional rostering is a driving factor behind the NHS retention crisis, and the resulting spend on agency staff. Disjointed systems, rigid shift patterns and a general lack of transparency have left clinicians feeling they have no control over their own working patterns, while managers are constantly scrambling to fill vacancies and maintain service delivery.
“If we’re serious about reducing our health service’s reliance on temporary staff, then we need to be smarter about the way we use – and treat – our existing pool of NHS clinicians. Giving frontline workers the flexibility and autonomy they crave isn’t just good for morale, it makes sense for the service as a whole. Preference‑Based Rostering will cut staffing gaps, boost retention and deliver major cost savings across our NHS.”
Already being adopted by NHS Trusts in England, Patchwork hopes the results of its first full NHS rollouts (expected to be published later this year) will act as clear evidence that flexibility for clinicians does not come at the cost of productivity in the NHS.
Dr Nader adds:
“Flexibility for clinicians and productivity for the NHS are often seen as mutually exclusive. Preference‑Based Rostering flips that assumption on its head.
“A key driver behind NHS staff leaving the service and joining agencies is a desire for greater flexibility. And it’s understandable. Clinicians have spent years watching in envy as their friends in other industries have embraced the benefits of flexible working in the post‑pandemic era.
“This isn’t just about giving clinicians more time off for major life events like weddings or holidays abroad, it’s about making sure they stop missing out on the ‘little’ things – bedtime stories, family dinners, evenings at the gym… the kind of thing the rest of us can simply take for granted.
“With better work‑life balance, we can reduce burnout and increase job satisfaction in our NHS. That means fewer shifts for NHS Trusts to fill with temporary workers, more efficient workforce management, and, crucially, a better service for patients.”
As the NHS strives to make the transition from analogue to digital, over 200 healthcare organisations across the UK – including Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust, Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust – have already embraced Patchwork’s innovative workforce solutions.
Patchwork Health is now partnered with over half of all NHS Trusts and Health Boards, and its technology has helped more than 120,000 healthcare staff gain access to critical insights and more flexible working. Collectively, this has saved the NHS over $180 million in staffing costs to date.
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