Case Study - Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Service redesign
In Mid 2006, the Royal Surrey County Hospital started a project to facilitate compliance with the Working Time Directive 2009, in order to reduce junior doctor hours.
The project aims to sustainably reduce hours and the intensity of junior doctor workload to achieve compliance, one way they are doing this is through the extension of roles for non-medical staff.
A job description and proposal for the creation of six clinical support workers (CSW) was prepared and presented to the Hospital 24:7 board. The pilot gained wide support as an initiative to support junior doctors.
After obtaining senior commitment within the trust, we gained the support of our project sponsor, Skills for Health - Workforce Projects Team. During the project's midpoint review, we held a strategic meeting with representatives from Workforce Projects Team (WPT) and it was agreed that we could use some of our pilot funding for this purpose.
Key Learning
Executive and clinical sponsorship is key to establishing extended roles across clinical boundaries
Set a designated training budget and plan when trialling a new role
Secure funding early and agree any caveats in advance
Actively marketing a post through new channels can widen the applicant pool
Engage trainers early, adapting existing hospital training structures where possible.
Each specialty requires a tailored solution to reducing junior doctor hours
Unique approaches to obtaining specialist clinician input to the project are beneficial.
We decided to actively market the post to target groups, for example, existing healthcare workers wanting to progress to new opportunities and those hoping to gain clinical experience before applying for places at medical school. To maximise our chances of internal applicants applying we advertised the post internally. We also advertised on NHS Jobs.
It was a challenge to reach potential applicants, but to overcome this we contacted representatives from local universities and medical schools to discuss the roles with them. Close liaison with local education providers also contribute towards both the project and the hospital's goal of enhancing links with our wider community.
A challenging aspect of the process has been developing a tailored training programme for these new posts, reflecting the differing clinical skills mix of potential applicants.
We are pleased that we were able to recruit our pilot CSWs in a timely manner, and that they have been able to start work with a comprehensive schedule which staggers their clinical and administrative training.
The job advertisement reached a wide range of applicants and this was evident from the candidates from whom we were able to shortlist. The high standard of applicants was also helpful in terms of assessing the future sustainability of the role.
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Working Time Directive 2009 
