Medical Agency Staff Invoice Best Practice For

Medical Agency Staff Invoice Best Practice For

Management Steering Group

MSG GUIDANCE 2016/01

MEDICAL AGENCY STAFF – INVOICE BEST PRACTICE FOR

NHS SCOTLAND EMPLOYERS

  1. All agency invoices submitted shall receive a rigorous check by a nominated and competent department.
  2. The check shall include a cross reference of the original booking request, invoice, booking confirmation & timesheet.
  3. All discrepancies must be supported by full audit trail and authorisation prior to payment.
  4. It is recommended that a log or note of frequently occurring issues is kept, together with correspondence. This should be shared with MASNet and other NHSS Boards to share learning and deal with pervasive issues.
  1. All agencies are required to provide a breakdown of all chargeable cost elements; separating out the worker rate of pay, any additional charges and commission, in advance of any booking.
  2. This should be made clear to all agencies by NHSS Board Procurement and implemented at each individual booking.
  3. Agencies who do not agree to this should not be used.
  4. Agencies who continually refuse to provide this information should be reported to NSS National Procurement (evidence of repeated endeavours to request this together with local escalation and agency refusals are required for NP to action).
  5. Agency invoices not containing this information shall be held up for payment.
  1. All agency booking confirmations shall provide standard information in writing to confirm key components of the agreement:
  2. Restbreaks are to be taken and will not be paid
  3. Agreements are concluded on NHSS Terms of Contract
  4. Commission has not to be charged on on-call hours not worked
  5. NHSS Timesheet must be completed
  6. Any extensions to original hire periods shall be named “extended hire period”
  1. NHSS Boards shall enforce strict “Authorised Signatory” rules based on SFIs and communicate rules on who can sign a timesheet.
  2. Ward staff shall not sign timesheets as an authoriser. They can confirm daily attendance by signature to the authorised signatory for approval.
  3. E-timesheets shall have appropriate controls built-in as part of their introduction.
  1. Authorised signatories shall follow good practice in authorising a timesheet.
  2. Each shift should be signed individually
  3. Empty columns should be cross-ruled
  4. Hours claimed shall be checked against original booking
  5. Rest breaks and on-call working shall be checked and verified.
  6. Any discrepancies shall be investigated and reconciled prior to sign-off
  1. NHSS Boards shall implement an exception process to support authorised signatories investigate changes.
  1. NHSS Boards shall appoint a senior sponsor to host regular agency spend and usage reviews. All Invoices submitted in excess of £10K shall be included in these NHSS Board corporate reviews.

Date Issued: November 2016

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