Medics Monthly Round Up | January 2024

It’s our first edition of 2024. In this Round Up, we share highlights from our recent Medics Rostering Focus Group, provide an update on Assure Appraisal and share our latest activity-based rostering webinar with you.

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We held our first focus group of the year with our medics expert customer community in January.

During this session, topics were explored including best practice for Junior Doctor and Consultant Rostering, how best to report on Contracted vs Actual hours, hearing feedback on our upcoming release of Allocate Optima (11.3.3) and exploring next generation product ideas.

The group also heard from Torel Thomas, Chief Clinical Information Officer from Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, who shared his perspective on the importance of rostering and sharing the clinical perspective.

Thank you again to all who joined us for our Medics Rostering Focus Group for their input and insight, that will help us ensure we develop our solutions and features to meet the needs of the medical workforce of the future.

Following conversations between our customers and the GMC, we have extended the date to switch over to the new domains in the appraisal form. This is to allow you to have a full Appraisal calendar period (April 23 – March 24) using consistent forms and notes.

The new domains, as outlined by the GMC, will still come into effect from Tuesday 30th January, and this will not change. 

• From 1st April 2024, any ongoing 24/25 appraisals that have been submitted to the appraiser, or signed off, will remain on the current domains in the Appraisal Form.
• From 1st April 2024, all 24/25 appraisal forms that have not been started, or have not been submitted to the appraiser, will switch to the new domains in the Appraisal Form and ‘Guidance Notes’ updated.

The new release date of Assure Appraisal version 4.9 will be announced soon. If you have any questions about the new domains, please reach out to a member of the customer success team.

As members of the medics workforce management community, you will be aware of the benefits that activity based rostering can bring to your medical workforce. But this isn’t just limited to your medical workforce. In a recent webinar, we delve into expanding activity-based rostering to ODP’s and Nurses within theatres.

David Mulligan, Head of Workforce Systems, and Kristopher Booth, Matron, at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust shared with the audience how with activity based rostering, they have now achieved no cancelled theatre lists over the last 12 months, due to shortages of ODP’s and Nurses workforce .

To find out more, you can watch the webinar back on demand entitled ‘Effective Scheduling for the ODP and Nursing Workforce = No Cancelled Theatre Lists for 12 months’

As we enter 2024, our Medical Director Dr Darren Kilroy shares his thoughts around why effective staff deployment is key to the safe, sustainable future of the NHS.  

“We are now well and truly into the busiest and most challenging quarter of the NHS year.  

They present themselves in two broad ways for our all organisations; operational (care delivery to an appropriate timescale) and financial (being able to fund not only the necessary care delivery, but make the investments required to improve it). In both these domains, I’m reminded of why as a key vendor, our role is crucial. The contribution to financial delivery is executed through effective staff deployment but also via good use of our risk and safety solutions. 

As my time in the NHS as a Medical Director, I vividly remember evenings and weekends spent with the on-call staffing teams in the hospital, scrabbling to find enough staff to fill the shifts for the coming hours. But with the RLDatix solutions, I was able to achieve this in a safe, sustainable way.

This reminds me why I joined RLDatix. To continue supporting our organisations in how they plan, roster and complete appraisals for our workforce, via the use of RLDatix Workforce solutions. All to minimise harm and hence minimise financial outlay via litigation. I look forward to continuing working with yourselves to help achieve this”.