The GMC has announced that it will be investigating how workplace facilities can affect doctors’ training. Questions regarding the workplace environment will be added to the GMC’s annual national training survey and will seek to find out about rest and catering facilities, transport and access to Wi-Fi at trusts across the UK.
In response to the GMC’s announcement Professor Mike Griffin, RCSEd President said:
“RCSEd released a report on improving the working environment for safe surgical care in 2017. Our report made a number of recommendations to ensure that staff are well equipped to provide safe care to patients such as reintroducing the hospital mess for doctors and designing rotas intelligently to enable high levels of patient care and safety.
I hope that by collecting further information regarding the impact the provision of facilities has on trainees, Trusts and Health Boards will see the value of investing in the wellbeing of their staff.”
Mr David Riding, Chair of the Trainees Committee, said:
“It is pleasing to see that the GMC will be assessing the impact the workplace environment has on trainees. Currently trainees are suffering from low levels of morale and high levels of burnout."
In order to deliver a high level of patient care and patient safety Trusts and Health Boards must ensure that trainees have access to appropriate facilities during long shifts. The availability of good quality hot food and drink, rest facilities and doctors' messes can have a huge impact on the everyday lives of trainees.
It is positive to see that the GMC will be monitoring this through the annual GMC trainees’ survey. I hope that the data will be used to lobby NHS employers to improve working conditions for all our colleagues”