As I pass over the baton to your new chair of SJDC, Dr Lailah Peel, I’d like to take the time to write to you all and highlight some successes of our work over the past year. I have had the pleasure of working with a great team to progress SJDC priorities and bring about some positive change via our discussions with the Scottish Government, NHS employers and NES. This has been challenging at many points but very rewarding, and I’m proud of what we have been able to achieve during this time. I want to take the opportunity to update you and to reflect and highlight some of the key areas of SJDC work from this session.
Rest periods after night shifts and defining nightshift working
SJDC reached an agreement with the Scottish Government and NHS boards that the rotas of all junior doctors include mandatory 46-hour recovery periods after runs of night shifts. We have now agreed on the definition of Full Shift night working applying to the minimum rest period of 46 hours to mean any shift worked that ends at or which falls past 2am. This will mean that at the conclusion of the final night shift, i.e., at 2am or later as defined, in any stretch, which could be the first (where the first night shift is the last worked), a minimum rest period must be given, and a junior doctor will not be expected to be back at work for a minimum of 46 hours.
Annual leave and public holidays
The BMA reached agreement with the Scottish Government and NHS Employers to apply the substitution of two public holidays with three additional annual leave days on a permanent basis for junior doctors and all secondary care doctors. Some NHS Boards already have local agreements in place with BMA LNCs, but this is now applied across NHS Scotland.
Covid/NHS recovery and remobilisation
During the pandemic, in ongoing discussions with external stakeholders, we have continued to highlight issues that have been raised with us by trainees, including concerns around workforce and recruitment, disruption to education and training, redeployment, delayed issuing of rotas, study leave funding and junior doctor wellbeing. SJDC issued joint Covid guidance with the Scottish Government around key issues including rota banding, the reinstatement of monitoring, trainee redeployment, return to normal working hours for LTFT trainees, annual leave and reducing fatigue, as well as guidance on teaching, study leave and exams.
We have continued to raise concerns around the impact of Covid on trainee progression with Scottish Government, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and recently with the Cabinet Secretary for Health to discuss disruption to training and how this would be managed. SJDC next meet with NES on 11 October and we will be looking to discuss outcome and data analysis from this year’s ARCP process which will hopefully provide a better picture of this and consideration of next steps.
Junior doctor wellbeing
Wellbeing has been one of the key priorities of SJDC this session, and one that I’ve fully committed to progressing. We conducted a wellbeing survey of junior doctors, which focused on some key priority issues and themes to inform our ongoing discussions with Scottish Government, employers, and NES. We have now published an external publication on junior doctor wellbeing, informed by feedback from the survey, and SJDC’s input around key priorities.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your hard work during what has been an unprecedented 18 months for us all – it has been a privilege to chair SJDC over the past year and to represent junior doctors across Scotland.
Alisdair Gilmour, former chair SJDC
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