• Site map
• Contact us
• About us
• How to join
• Feedback

Making information technology work for hospital juniors

Supporting working practices and training within the new contract and the European Working Time Directive
May 2003

Section 1 - Introduction
Changes in working practices of junior hospital doctors have accelerated in the last two years since the introduction of the new contract for junior doctors and the impending implementation of the European Working Time Directive, as well as a general move towards high quality 24-hour care within the NHS.

These changes – which place contractual limits on the number of hours worked and protection of rest requirements – necessitate either a reduction in working hours or a reduction in intensity of duty.

In an effort to make posts compliant, this has seen a move away from long periods of continuous duty resident in hospital to systems of partial- or full-shift working in high intensity posts, or attempts to move away from resident to non-resident on-call in less intense posts.

The introduction of the EWTD will see a further need for reduction in working hours to 48 hours-per-week when fully implemented in 2009.

A need for new functionality in IT systems
Information systems have not kept up with the changes in working patterns, potentially putting patients at risk.

There are several key functions pertinent to junior doctors that need addressing further:
- The provision of a robust mechanism for information flow across increasingly complex working patterns
- Reduction in hours through improved efficiency
- Support of education and training within a shorter working week

Key to accommodating this is an urgent need to up-date the communication infrastructure in secondary care.

Aims of this document
We aim to explore further these themes, and highlight the critical role that the NHS information strategy must play in this.

It is not appropriate to give detailed technological solutions and costing. Rather, we hope to be able to suggest an output specification for trainee doctors’ requirements to inform the planning and commissioning of NHS information systems.