Sustainably reducing junior doctor workload

Distributed: 19th May 2009

Junior doctors are getting more rest and therefore working more safely thanks to an innovative European Working Time Directive pilot project performed by Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The Trust aimed to sustainably reduce the hours and intensity of work for junior doctors by giving non medical staff the skills to support them.

www.healthcareworkforce.nhs.uk/surreypilot

The project was supported by Skills for Health – Workforce Projects Team (WPT), the organisation tasked with helping healthcare organisations find and implement solutions to EWTD. WPT has worked with wide group of stakeholders and pilot solutions that look for new ways of working, whilst also communicating best practice to the healthcare sector in the countdown to the 1st August deadline.

Royal Surrey's pilot gained wide support as an initiative to support junior doctors, with the Trust reaching a wide range of applicants by actively marketing the new posts across the organisation. Staff also found that it was vital to obtain executive and clinical sponsorship when extending roles across clinical boundaries.

To find out more about the work conducted by Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and WPT, visit their pages on the healthcare workforce portal, or view www.healthcareworkforce.nhs.uk/wtdcasestudies for all EWTD case studies.