Auckland general practices will still be able to take care of their community even when their own doctors or nurses are off sick – thanks to Bee Found NZ.

BeeFound is an online and mobile platform that connects locum GPs and nurses with practices in need of cover. It has revolutionised the locum/practice relationship by providing instant search results and immediate confirmation of availability. It enables practices to ‘tag’ preferred locums,it’s free for locums to sign up and practices can book locums without incurring expensive recruitment or agency fees.

BeeFound was developed in the UK and was introduced in New Zealand by Pegasus Health in 2017.   It is currently delivering locum cover in Wellington, the Bay of Plenty, Canterbury, the West Coast and now, to 40 practices in the Comprehensive Care Network in Auckland.  

Pegasus Health’s Digital Platform Manager, Eirlys Beverley-Stone says the success of BeeFoundNZ is due to Pegasus Health’s deep understanding of the needs of general practice.

“Through our relationships with general practices in Canterbury,we discovered that finding locum cover was a real challenge; recruiting locums was both costly and often unreliable, which meant practices were under increasing pressure to keep operating even when staff were sick or on leave.Discovering BeeFound and modifying it to work in New Zealand conditions has been a lifesaver for many of our practices.

Pegasus health’s role is to support general practices to bestrong, viable businesses, able to deliver the best possible care in their communities. Tools such as BeeFound enable them to operate at capacity and deliver quality, consistent services.”

Since being launched in New Zealand in 2017, BeeFound has assisted 227 practices to secure GP, nurse, nurse practitioner, and enrolled nurse locums. The platform currently has around 250 registered locums providing much-needed services forNew Zealand’s general practice teams.   

In 2018, BeeFound NZ was named as one of three finalists in the NZ Health IT Innovation Awards,recognising its positive impact on the delivery of healthcare services in New Zealand.