Job plans and rotas should be constructed to ensure reasonable rest periods and should be regularly reviewed taking into consideration out of hours work frequency, duration of out of hour’s periods and availability of recovery time after being on call.
Feedback should be sought from departmental members about working patterns and their effects on health and wellbeing and adjustments made where working patterns are problematic.
Departments should encourage flexibility when reviewing job plans to support the changing needs of colleagues over the course of their career. Colleagues should be supported in tailoring their career over time. The impact of change on the rest of the department should be considered.27
Anaesthetists appointed to organisation wide, non-clinical roles should be adequately supported with sufficient time and resources to undertake the role.
Anaesthetists with commitments to regional and national work should have appropriate support through job planning. Departments should take into consideration both the impact this has on the rest of the department, as well as the considerable benefits local departments gain from having staff undertake anaesthetic regional and national roles.
The workforce plan should include the minimum number of staff to maintain the service without compromising safety, quality, education and training and wellbeing.
Rostering should allow flexibility and capacity within the system to cover sickness, which may help to protect against staff burnout and build a sustainable workforce.29
If appropriate resources are not available, the level of clinical activity should be adjusted to ensure a safe provision of care while maintaining quality, education and training and wellbeing.
The department should have a rota with sufficient flexibility in job planning to ensure that the usual day to day changes in urgent and emergency clinical activity can be safely covered by appropriate staff, using a clear prioritisation plan.17
