NHS rotas so chaotic that staff are asked to work on their wedding day

NHS rotas are so chaotic that doctors have been asked to work on their wedding days, the Health Secretary has said.

Announcing an overhaul of working conditions for medics, Victoria Atkins said the measures would “vastly improve doctors’ work-life balance” and reduce their stress levels.

Junior doctors are now the only staff group in the NHS to have refused to agree a pay deal with the Government.

Pay talks between the Health Secretary and the British Medical Association (BMA) broke down in December, raising the prospect that strikes could continue until the general election.

However, health officials and doctors’ groups, including the BMA have continued discussions about other aspects of working lives, after many doctors highlighted areas of concern.

On Thursday, the Health Secretary announced measures intended to give junior doctors more control over their schedules.

Writing for The Telegraph, she urges the BMA to consider what had been achieved thanks to “constructive” work between the Government, NHS and doctors groups including the BMA, and come back to the table to discuss pay.

The new measures being rolled out across the NHS follow widespread complaints that medics’ plans have been at the mercy of ever-changing schedules, including cases where doctors have been asked to work on their own wedding day, or during their honeymoon.

Under instructions from NHS England, hospital rota planners will now be told to honour annual leave that is booked, provide working schedules with eight weeks’ notice and deploy technology so doctors can have more say over when their shifts fall.

The NHS has also ordered a review of statutory and mandatory training, which could halve the amount of time staff spend on administration and inductions. It follows complaints that medics working on rotation were forced to go through the same procedures at multiple hospitals.

“It cannot be right that doctors should be scheduled to work on their wedding day or during their honeymoon when they have given months of notice, and then face the unnecessary stress of finding cover – just one of the many examples I have heard from doctors since joining the department.”

“This improvement to doctors’ working lives shows what can be achieved with constructive, reasonable dialogue. I hope we can build on this constructive approach as we try to find a way to end the BMA’s pay dispute.”

The measures also promise to streamline payroll systems, tackle blunders and ensure doctors are not left out of pocket.

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 others 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.”

Dr Waqas Akhtar, chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges’ trainee doctors’ committee said: “We welcome these proposals and are grateful to NHS England for engaging positively and at the highest level to explore our ideas. They won’t solve all the challenges trainees face in their working lives or their learning experience, but it’s a good start and we applaud the scale of the ambition. We now look to NHS employers to show the necessary commitment to make the recommendations a reality.”

Junior doctors have a mandate to strike or take action short of a strike until mid-September, having reballoted members earlier this year.

The doctors’ union is asking for a pay rise of 35 per cent over several years. The Government says they have received an average uplift of 8.8 per cent this financial year. Consultants, who have also been on strike, voted to accept a pay deal which will give increases of up to 19 per cent this year.

Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairmen of the junior doctors committee, said: “The working lives of NHS junior doctors have been made needlessly stressful. A way of working which means they could move jobs as frequently as every three months to hospitals in unfamiliar parts of the country; mandatory training cutting into their own time; and unpredictable rotas which makes it impossible to plan their lives – whether arranging care for dependents or maintaining social wellbeing – they deserve better than this.”

“It’s great that NHS England has made commitments to improve on some of the issues we’ve raised with them, and we’ll be holding them to those commitments in the days to come.

“However, if junior doctors are to be valued as much as the NHS claims, they will need above all to see meaningful steps towards getting their pay restored.”

Our once-in-a-generation plan will safeguard the NHS for your children and grandchildren

The NHS can only deliver world-class care because of the incredible doctors and nurses who work in it, writes Victoria Atkins.

That’s why we are constantly striving to make it the best possible place to work.

I’m proud to say our action has led to a milestone today, with the latest stats showing there are now record numbers of doctors and nurses in England’s health service.

That’s more than 140,000 doctors and more than 348,000 nurses looking after you and your loved ones, making sure everyone reading this newspaper in England has access to healthcare free at the point of use.

That’s over 45,000 more doctors and over 74,800 more nurses than in 2010.

The latest figures show there are now more than 37,000 doctors in general practice supporting patients in communities across the country.

This is what we’ve been working so hard to achieve, because a growing NHS workforce is vital if we are to make our healthcare system faster, simpler and fairer.

Although we know there are now more doctors and nurses than ever before, we aren’t stopping here.

I’ve been clear that it’s the people who work in the NHS that are key to everything it does.

I’m pleased that following constructive work between my department, senior NHS leadership and doctors’ groups, including the BMA, we will be improving their working lives so they can focus on caring for their patients.

I have been working closely with NHS England, and want to thank Amanda Pritchard, the CEO of NHS England, for all her help ensuring doctors will now get more choice and flexibility over their rotas, streamline pay processes when they move from trust to trust and reverse the system for paying course fees so that they NHS pays them upfront.

Those are just some of the measures that will vastly improve doctors’ work-life balance. It cannot be right that doctors should be scheduled to work on their wedding day or during their honeymoon when they have given months of notice, and then face the unnecessary stress of finding cover – just one of the many examples I have heard from doctors since joining the department.

This improvement to doctors’ working lives shows what can be achieved with constructive, reasonable dialogue.

I hope we can build on this constructive approach as we try to find a way to end the BMA’s pay dispute.

We have a wider plan to grow the workforce to help more patients – ensuring the NHS’S best days are yet to come.

It’s called the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. We’re backing this exciting plan with £2.4 billion, which will add hundreds of thousands more staff to the health workforce over the next 15 years.

The plan will double the number of medical school places by 2031 and add 2,000 more GP training places. We are also improving childcare support for NHS staff, reforming the pension scheme and investing in artificial intelligence to support the workforce.

I am thrilled to hear that thousands of young people want to work for the NHS, and that it is the most popular prospective employer among 13-16 year-olds.

Both doctor and nurse made the top five in career preferences in a survey of 4,000 young people, with one in ten saying that doctor was their top career pick. Our plan will help those ambitious young minds become the doctors and nurses of tomorrow.

The NHS is reaching a turning point and it’s not just record staff numbers.

The overall NHS waiting list in England has now fallen by almost 200,000 over the past five months. To put that into context, that’s the biggest five-month fall in the waiting list in more than 10 years outside the pandemic.

I know industrial action is still a cause for concern for many, but we’ve reached a landmark deal with consultants which shows what can be achieved if unions work constructively with us. I urge junior doctors to take the same approach, because it’s patients who will suffer if we don’t find a solution.

We must keep up this momentum. Our once-in-a-generation plan will safeguard the health service for you, your children and grandchildren.

Victoria Atkins is the Health Secretary