The introduction of new roles and different rota designs are among the solutions under consideration by the five of the Royal Colleges to meet the challenges of achieving WTD compliance.
These Royal Colleges, who all share the imperatives of providing safe care for patients and delivering high quality training, are working closely with the Skills for Health - Workforce Projects Team to overcome potential difficulties.
Representatives of the five Royal Colleges of Physicians, Surgeons, Anaesthetists, Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, plus Paediatrics and Child Health, all attended the exhibition to outline their ongoing work to meet next year’s deadline, which they all agree is ‘a major challenge’.
A year long joint project by the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal College of Anaesthetists, funded by the Workforce Projects Team, started in January 2008 with an online questionnaire to trusts to gather basic data on progress towards achieving WTD compliance.
Phase two, which is currently underway, involves structured interviews with representative of trusts which are already 48 hour compliant to gain detailed information on their achievements. The case studies will then be assessed by expert panels to determine how they can be adapted to different situations and a guidance document recommending solutions will be approved by both colleges in November.
Consultant surgeon Professor Mike Horrocks of the School for Health at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, said: “We must try to ensure that surgeons have the knowledge and skills to design rotas which protect patient safety, minimise disruption to training and provide the best levels of continuity of care, accepting that reconfiguration of some surgical services will be required.”
He said that both the separation of emergency, elective care and successful Hospital at Night (HaN) models were both working well. More details on page 5.
In a separate project the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) worked with the Workforce Projects Team to identify solutions to help to overcome their particular difficulties, ‘because of the need to have specialty-specific clinical skills immediately available throughout 24 hours’.
After obtaining information from maternity and paediatric units in England on their progress towards WTD, the aim was to assess the impact on the training and professional development of paediatricians and obstetricians and to evaluate the effectiveness of possible models of staffing.
The project, of value to trust chief executives and their staff and clinicians involved in patient care and postgraduate training, provided guidance for those developing services. The final report of the RCOG and RCPCH project was distributed at the conference and is available for download at www.healthcareworkforce.nhs.uk/rcpchandrcog
Working Time Directive 2009 
