Adopting seven day working in practice

04 Nov 2014

Following the UK Academy of Medical Royal Colleges Report on seven-day consultant present care, our College held a symposium to explore clinicians’ views on the ways in which clinical care should best be enhanced outside ‘normal’ working hours. In addition, a survey of our Fellows and Members was undertaken to identify the test which would make the greatest impact on care out of hours.

Key messages were:

• That seven-day consultant delivered care would not achieve the desired benefit to patient care if introduced in isolation from other inter-relating factors. These include alternatives to hospital admission, enhanced nursing support, increased junior medical, pharmacy, social care and ambulance availability, and greater access to diagnostic services
• That the care of hospital inpatients is a service which is one part of the totality of secondary care provision. Any significant change in the deployment of staff for inpatient care must be carefully managed so as not to result in a reduced quality of care provided by the rest of the system.

The complete outcomes from the symposium are published in the Scottish Medical Journal in a paper authored by the President, Dr Frank Dunn, Honorary Secretary, Professor Hazel Scott, consultant physician CJ Isles, Vice-President (Medical) Professor Miles Fisher, and Dean of the College of Emergency Medicine, Jason Long.

Scottish Medical Journal http://scm.sagepub.com.

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