News

Southern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland has undertaken a workforce re-design project to evaluate its junior doctor rotas, its objectives being to ensure hospital services meet patient needs and to identify efficiency savings.

 

A number of the Trust’s rotas were over 48 hours and being paid the higher band 2 pay supplements. A key objective of the workforce re-design project was to improve the efficiency of these rotas, whilst still ensuring that the right junior doctors were in the right place at the right time, and fulfilling their training needs. With new rotas in place the Trust anticipated improved compliance and financial savings through lower band 1 pay supplements.

 

Assistant Medical Staffing Manager, Malcolm Clegg explained, “A significant amount of work was undertaken to improve compliance and to support this, the Trust decided to invest in the Zircadian system. We have been delighted that we have achieved such good results already.”

 

The right software to support rota redesign

The Trust had clear objectives in place for their rota redesign and service reconfiguration. It was aware that the right software package was essential to support these objectives and to facilitate the process of implementing the new working patterns.

The Trust reviewed various rota planning solutions before partnering with Zircadian and has been delighted with the successful implementation of the solution, and with the ongoing expert support.

Malcolm Clegg commented, “We were the first Trust in Northern Ireland to invest in this type of solution and we went for a fast track approach to get a quick return on investment.”

To achieve a particularly quick return on investment the Trust chose to have Zircadian’s team of rota experts advise on and build its existing and proposed rotas in the e-Rota system. This freed up Trust resources and completing this complex task early on in the project allowed for clear comparisons and decisions to be made very quickly. Zircadian’s team was also able to use its expertise to explore further rota options for the Trust to consider, and ongoing access to the Zircadian support desk ensured that any questions the Trust had were instantly addressed and any problems swiftly resolved.

Initial success builds solid long-term relationship

The rotas implemented as part of the workforce re-design project are now playing a vital role in supporting the Trust objectives of delivering safe and high quality health and social care services, in an efficient and cost effective manner.

Initial monitoring exercises showed the new rotas to be compliant and sustainable working patterns. The lower bandings that were achieved as a result of the project contributed to a cost reduction of approximately £150,000 per annum.

e-Rota and e-Monitor continue to be a vital tool for the Trust’s medical staffing department, providing the ability to be reactive to any changing circumstances within the Trust whilst maintaining the good working practices the Trust has put in place.

These benefits have led the Trust to renew its contracts with Zircadian, with both parties looking forward to a successful long term relationship.

Henry Carleton, Managing Director at Zircadian commented, “It is very encouraging to see a Trust taking positive steps to meeting the challenges posed by the QIPP agenda, and maintaining its commitment to providing first class frontline services. At Zircadian we aim to provide the tools and services to support Trusts working on projects such as this, to help ensure a successful outcome. We look forward to continuing to build on these initial successes.”

About Southern Health and Social Care Trust

The Southern Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland) became operational on 1 April 2007 following the amalgamation of Craigavon Area Hospital Group, Craigavon and Banbridge Community, and the Newry and Mourne, and Armagh and Dungannon Health and Social Services Trusts.

 

The Trust was formed to ensure that the delivery of patient care comes first by establishing and promoting links between hospitals and community based services. With 12,000 employees serving a population of around 335,000, the Trust has to ensure the provision of first class patient care while managing costs and employee welfare.

See full case study here

 

For further information contact Dee Enright on 020 8946 8199 or email dee.enright@zircadian.com