Timekeeping vital in new junior doctor contract
Junior doctors in the UK have been fighting a battle with their employers (effectively the UK Government) over a new national employment contract (see here for details). In November 2015 relations went through their roughest patch when the UK doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, called a series of strikes, culminating in a full walkout of all junior staff in early 2016. Following this, both sides got around the table and have hammered out a deal, which is currently under consideration by junior doctors.
One of the most novel aspects of the proposed new contract is called “pay for work done”. This proposal means that UK junior doctors will, in effect, for the first time, be able to bill hospitals for working overtime so long as they can prove they’ve worked significantly longer than the hours they are paid for, and that staying late or coming in early was necessary for patient care.
There has been extensive discussion throughout the medical community in the UK about how this could work, and many people agree that electronic logging of doctors’ working hours will be central to the new contract being successfully implemented.
At Logitbox, we already provide one of the most comprehensive and secure ways for doctors to record their medical training experience, and this service is already used across the globe from Australia to North America. With our UK users in mind, we will shortly be adding a shift-work logbook to the system, helping medical trainees in the UK record their working hours accurately, and hopefully doing our bit to improve industrial relations in the UK’s NHS.
We made Logitbox so you could easily organise and securely record your clinical training records. Check it out now at logitbox.com.
