Working hours: Balancing risk and productivity

Abstract

Aim: To create the first evidence-based risk management tool that balances productivity with the likelihood of breeching the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) and band 1 of the current UK junior doctor contract. Thus, providing reassurance to HR managers and junior doctors that a working pattern will not breech contractual and legislative hours limits. Methods: Twenty-one North West England NHS Trusts allowed access to their junior doctor hours monitoring data from 2012/13. Examination of the variance between the anticipated hours of work and that actually worked in practice facilitated the production of a risk-management tool for rota designers. Results: Valid monitoring returns were obtained for 256 full-shift and 47 non-resident on-call rotas. Full-shift specialties with >10 rotas in the dataset, and normally distributed, were used to produce a look-up table that allows rota designers to choose an acceptable percentage likelihood of breeching a pay banding/EWTD. This would be achieved by incorporating a specified minimum number of minutes under/over the 48-hour limit into the template rota as designated by the tool.