Case studies

Background

The Welsh Assembly Government, for the past five years, has procured the services of Zircadian Limited on behalf of the NHS in Wales. Zircadian's MRM-Live software is used by all trusts in Wales for management of their junior doctors' rotas.

The Challenge

The Welsh Assembly Government is keen to help trusts achieve EWTD compliance by the August 2009 deadline, at which point a 48 hour limit on weekly working hours for junior doctors will be imposed by law. Through a data collection exercise, the Assembly Government identified that there were approximately 105 rotas across 12 trusts in Wales that worked between 48 and 52 hours per week. It was also known that trusts had minimal resources to dedicate solely to redesigning rotas.

Having confidence in the MRM-LIve software, and in Zircadian as a company, the decision was made by the Welsh Assembly Government to invite Zircadian to carry out a consultancy project encompassing a rebuild of this group of non-compliant rotas.

The Solution

In order to create a clear pathway to EWTD compliance, Zircadian identified all current, live rotas working between 48 and 52 EWTD hours per week. Workable solutions were then developed, which can be easily implemented by trusts to make these rotas compliant between now and August 2009.

Richard Lucas, the Zircadian consultant leading the project, said: "Meeting the 2009 compliance deadline does not necessarily mean a major redesign of every rota for a trust. Many rotas are only just over the 48 hour target, so in these cases there are a number of solutions that can be developed to push them into compliance, without having a major effect on services. By helping to ensure this group of rotas can be made EWTD compliant with relatively minimal effort from trusts, we can help alleviate some of the burden associated with meeting the August target. This will allow trusts to focus their efforts instead on those problem rotas that still have further to go to meet 2009 compliance and which may need a major redesign."

The Benefits

The project was completed in January 2009, having taken just six weeks. Zircadian consultants were able to produce reports for each individual trust based on their existing rotas. If the options highlighted by Zircadian are now implemented by trusts, the overall rate of EWTD compliance across Wales will rise from 56% to 90%.

Linda Ware, EWTD & New Deal Project Manager for the Welsh Assembly Government, said: “As usual Zircadian have been helpful and thoroughly professional, especially given the very tight timescales. The expert knowledge within the company has given NHS employers in Wales realistic options to consider, and has shown how they can make significant savings.”