Rota Design for 2009 - North Western Deanery

Example bleep policy 3Manchester Mental Healthand Social Care TrustJunior Doctors Bleep ProcedureIntroductionThis policy seeks to consolidate existing good practicerelating to communication between nursing andmedical staff.A bleep is a device that enables urgent contact to bemade with junior doctors (needs to be explicit). It’scounter productive if used for routine, non urgent calls.In general a bleep should not be used unless there is agood reason to call the doctor immediately.Aims• To make the most effective use of junior doctorclinical time• To enable junior doctors to take the necessary breaksto comply with the New Deal and Working TimeDirective (WTD)• To aid communication between medical and nonmedical staff• To ensure that the bleep system is used for urgentcalls only.Protected HoursParticular care should be taken when bleeping doctorsbetween the following times, to ensure that naturalbreaks and continuous rest (in order to comply with theNew Deal and WTD) are achieved:12:00 – 14:0017:00 – 19:0022:00 – 08:00Within these hours doctors should only be bleeped forurgent calls (defined below).Life Threatening EmergenciesIn this situation, the crash team should be called accordingto procedure. Where the crash call has been replaced witha 999 call the junior doctor should be bleeped.Urgent CallsUrgent calls are defined as:• Any major change in a patient’s general conditionthat will not wait until the doctor’s next routine visit• Distressing symptoms, which may cause the patientundue suffering if not dealt with before the nextroutine visit of the doctor to the ward• Relatives requiring to speak with the doctor becauseof deterioration in a patient’s condition• The arrival of an urgent admission• A & E presentations• Suicide presentation• OverdosesThis list is not exhaustive.Non Urgent CallsGood planning can reduce the need for non urgentbleeps. Junior doctors should take care to communicatewith nursing staff during the day to ensure that allroutine ward work, which cannot be delayed until theirnext planned visit, is completed.When bleeping a doctor it should be consideredwhether the issue could wait for the next planned visitof the doctor. To facilitate this:• The ward should be aware of the doctors nextplanned visit. A system should be in place so theward will have a readily available record of thedoctor’s next visit• Out of usual working hours medical staff should visitall wards at pre arranged time(s) to deal with queriesor problems. Although it’s recognised thatunforeseen events and emergencies will takeprecedent and therefore delays to visits are possible• Each ward should keep a list or book tocommunicate requirements/tasks for the juniordoctor at the next ward visit. Nursing staff should listall the routine and non urgent tasks for the doctorto carry out. The doctor should confirm with thenursing staff that an item has been completed andsign the list or book for verification.50