Abstract
McKay et al. 1 mention some of the implications of the imposition of the new junior doctor contract. One they have not mentioned is the proposed loss of hours monitoring, which currently penalises the employing trust if they overwork their doctors by providing a way of re-banding the whole of the overworked rota. This can result in up to a significant 100% Band 3 penalty paid by the trust. Very little information is currently available on the use of the rota monitoring for banding appeals as NHS England do not keep central records.
I, therefore, asked all 238 NHS trusts in England (excluding social enterprises) how many banding appeals they had in 2015. In the 214 trusts who responded 620 junior doctors appealed their rota, in 58 separate appeals. Over the year, these trusts stated they employed 44,675 junior doctors so this represents one in every 72 junior doctors challenging the banding of their rota. Nearly all of these appeals also resulted in a change in the rota, or more doctors being hired. Only two appeals, have been unsuccessful.
This, therefore, shows that the hours monitoring and re-banding system is quite well used and results in changes to create safer working practices. The new contract’s safeguards, which will only fine for the exact hours overworked and requires either the support of your Educational Supervisor (or going over their head), 2 will not represent as much of a financial deterrent for the trusts.