1. Service Context
The NHS Plan is committed to increasing the numbers of doctors and other healthcare professionals to provide improved care for patients. Modernising their education is at the heart of improving the health service.Doctors within the service continue to provide excellent care for patients within a context of rising expectation and need. Education takes place within this environment. We need to identify the means by which learning can adapt to the challenges facing the NHS.
The exemption from the requirements of the EWTD that applied previously to junior doctors and dentists in training will be lifted from May 2004. The EWTD requires a 48-hour limit to the number of hours worked weekly to be implemented by May 2009. However, by 2004 doctors will be required to have a minimum rest period of 11 hours in every 24 hours. In addition, the SIMAP judgement requires that doctors who are resident on call be deemed to be working even if they are asleep. The implication is that many junior doctors will be working in shift patterns rather than “traditional” on-call rotas in future.