Compliance with WTD - Latest Position

The results from the bi-annual Ministerial Return from October 2007 are now available. Although this Return is used to collect employers’ data on doctors in training to determine compliance with the provisions of the ‘New Deal’, it also acts as a good proxy for measuring compliance with the provisions of the Working Time Directive.

This showed that, overall, compliance with the 2009 standard, whereby no doctor in training should be working in excess of 48 hours per week, had risen from 41% in September 2006 to nearly 52% in October 2007.

The position within each SHA has been analysed and shows levels of compliance ranging from less than 40% to more than 60%. Within groups of clinical specialties, the three biggest challenges remain in surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology and anaesthetics.

Detailed information via the Benchmarking Tool will be available from 1st April on www.healthcareworkforce.nhs.uk/working_time_directive/

Although this represents good progress, the pace of improvement will need to accelerate considerably if the 2009 target is to be achieved across the NHS.