In a huge push to improve the lives of tens of thousands of postgraduate doctors, NHS England is pledging to enhance choice and flexibility with rotas, while reducing payroll errors and the financial burden of course fees.
Postgraduate doctors in training, who make up more than 50,000 NHS staff, move between trusts at least twice each year during their training years after university. This can mean finding out new work schedules at short notice and duplication of inductions when starting work at a new hospital.
As part of the NHS’s long term workforce plan ambition to support and retain staff, the NHS will outline its commitment to make doctors lives easier by working with partners to consider how it can improve the experience of rotations in postgraduate training.
In a letter from NHS leaders, the health service is also announcing it will carry out a review of the minimum legal requirements for statutory and mandatory training so that staff can spend less time on admin and inductions and more time caring for patients. This review could see the time burden for such training halved, with plans to lengthen the refresher period between retaking these training modules.
Doctors are currently legally required to complete 11 statutory and mandatory training courses every year, but the NHS England review which is due to be completed by August 2024, will determine which staff groups and roles are required to complete each mandatory training module. Cutting the amount of training that NHS staff need to complete could free up to one day a year for each doctor.
To reduce the administrative burden on doctors the NHS will also ask trusts to adopt a national training framework and an eLearning online training portal which will ensure mandatory training is completed and reported consistently. This new system will mean doctors will no longer need to repeat mandatory training when moving between hospitals.
The system for paying course fees will also be reversed so that the NHS, rather than the trainee, pays them upfront; avoiding the hardship caused by waiting for reimbursement.
NHS England will also be ensuring trusts are meeting requirements to provide choice and flexibility with rotas, and exploring the opportunities technology offers to enable greater self-rostering so doctors have more control over their lives while meeting the needs of the service.
Employers will be asked to pay specific attention to payroll accuracy for their staff, particularly for doctors in training because rotations and cost of training can make payroll errors more frequent. New payroll governance will be put in place at each trust by the end of July and for employers with the most errors reported by staff, intensive support will be provided including a review and redesign of payroll processes where needed.
To help reduce errors like this happening during the rotation process, the NHS will also be exploring rolling out Lead Employer Models, so each doctor has a single lead employer throughout the whole of their training.
NHS England will be ensuring the National Training and Education Survey and GMC Survey which details the unique experiences of trainees is treated in the same way as the National Staff Survey results, with oversight by trust boards supported by clear action plans. Trusts must identify a senior, named individual to oversee the implementation of these actions and be accountable at Board level.
Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive, said: “Our doctors are there for our patients who need their expert, specialist care everyday – so we must do everything we can to make sure we are there for them too.
“We have listened to and continue to listen to staff frustrations, so from cutting red tape in training, to improving flexible working options, to sorting out payroll errors, we really hope that these practical actions will help make a tangible difference to their working lives.
“Some of these are immediate actions which trusts should make sure are happening right away, while other are longer term measures which we are making a priority – we want our skilled doctors to stay working in the NHS and have rewarding careers – and I am committed to making these important changes.”
