NHS to improve record-sharing process for junior doctors

The NHS has promised that it will improve records-sharing processes for junior doctors on rotation, cutting down on their time doing unnecessary admin

Honouring an agreement with the BMA, the NHS has now announced a commitment to ending certain administrative tasks faced by junior doctors when they start new rotations.

According to the BMA, plans to improve the way employment, occupational health and statutory and mandatory training records are shared will apply to all trusts in England by mid-2020.

This promise is the result of work undertaken by NHS Improvement’s Doctors in Training Programme Board.

Under the agreed plans, Health Education England will inform all doctors of their placements 12 weeks in advance of starting, with this data then transferred from HEE’s trainee information system to trusts and stored in the ESR (electronic staff records).

BMA junior doctors committee deputy chair for education and training, Sarah Hallett, said the agreement would make a huge difference to the doctors working on rotation.

“When junior doctors rotate between jobs, we often have to undergo all of the employment checks from scratch,” she said.

“This means a vast amount of paperwork that we have to provide for the new trust, along with our occupational health information, which likewise is not shared automatically.

“There is also a huge burden of mandatory training, and we quite often find ourselves having to redo these learning packages every six months as each employer has a slightly different variation on them.

“All of this can easily equate to a day’s worth of tick-box exercises. It also makes for a significant administrative burden for the staff and is a real waste of time, money and resources for the NHS.

“By streamlining and simplifying the way trusts share this information, doctors working on rotation will be able to begin working for their new employer in more efficient and speedy manner.

“These changes will also help the health service reduce duplicative and unnecessary administrative processes that currently use up precious NHS resources.”

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