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Whilst many clinical services and procedures in the NHS are at the forefront of modern clinical practice, it cannot be said that its back office functions are quite so progressive. The NHS, one of the largest employers in the world, has not been quick to adopt practices and technologies that are revolutionising other industries and employers.

 

Zircadian Ltd works with NHS trusts to improve the efficiency and productivity of medical HR and workforce. For a number of reasons medics are different to all other employees in the NHS, not least because they are not employed under Agenda for Change but have their own unique contracts of employment. This means that the HR surrounding medics is more complex and specialised. This complexity has meant that their administration has been labour-intensive and consequently paper-heavy.

 

For example, under the new consultant contract agreed in 2003, senior doctors must undergo an annual job planning exercise that requires them to agree a detailed prospective plan of their work for the coming year. These prospective plans and the data they provide are vital in terms of helping trusts understand their capacity and undertake successful commissioning with PCT’s or GP consortia . If job plans are paper-based, their analysis is incredibly time-consuming and as such is often only completed well after the useful shelf life of the data being analysed.

 

Electronic job planning systems not only help consultants and their clinical managers agree the job plans faster but also allow in-depth analysis and review of the proposed activity well in advance of the commissioning process. Effective job planning can save millions of pounds by helping facilitateeffective commissioning and freeing up more time for clinical services.

Not all processes can eradicate the use of paper. A good example of this is the new requirement for doctors to undergo revalidation every five years. To be relicensed a doctor must now provide a portfolio of supporting evidence, much of which is paper-based, e.g. training certificates, or even patients’ thank you cards. Each year this evidence must be presented at the doctor’s annual appraisal and then again to a responsible officer at the end of the five year cycle. Whilst there has been much discussion of the type and structure of this supporting evidence, what is clear is that whatever the evidence consists of, it must all be held electronically in one place.

 

At Zircadian we recognised this core requirement early on and partnered with one of the world’s leading enterprise content management providers, Perceptive Software. Their flagship product, ImageNow, integrates with our e-Appraisal and Revalidation module and means that NHS doctors can now capture and process their paper documents easily and quickly and, most importantly, provide access to those who need to review it. This instant accessibility of information saves hundreds of valuable hours that would otherwise be spent filing or hunting for paper documents.

 

Indeed in the near future, the ImageNow technology united with Zircadian’s expertise in medical HR will, I believe, revolutionise many of the back office operations concerning doctors. Medical staffing departments today spend many hours processing, filing and storing paper forms pertaining to doctors’ employment. Many yards of office space are dedicated to storing these medics’ files. The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is using ImageNow and Zircadian to transform the normal paper-heavy recruitment processes into paper-light ones that are quicker, more efficient and cheaper in terms of storage.

 

We are also using technology to help trusts eradicate their dependency on expensive locums by creating interconnected networks of internal locum banks. Why should locum agencies earn millions of pounds in commission by placing existing NHS staff with other NHS organisations? The answer is they shouldn't.

 

Medical staffing departments in the NHS face complex and unique challenges but if they embrace the more modern and technological-based solutions they will contribute greatly to meeting David Nicholson’s challenge .