Rota Management during the COVID 19 Pandemic in a Busy Paediatric District General Hospital

Background: During an emergency such as a pandemic, it becomes evident that teams need to act immediately and proactively to ensure optimal response in providing medical care. As any events unfold, changes that usually need to be made are often decided based on close observation of the clinical needs.

Objectives: We present a useful way to approach rota management particularly in emergency scenarios where there is a likelihood of many doctors getting sick or needing to isolate due to the pandemic. We also shed light on the importance of involving doctors in leading roles within their teams.

Methods: We constructed the rota using the original rota as a backbone mainly to take into account previous swaps and annual leaves. We calculated the total number of hours each doctor was scheduled to work. Based on this, we converted their weekly hours into 12.5 hour long shifts which included “back up” shifts. The rota was designed in a way that enabled the department to revert back to the original rota at any time without any issue.

Results: During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, all the rota gaps were filled. This was despite nearly half of the doctors requiring self-isolation during this period. We conducted an anonymous survey to find out the doctors’ views on the rota and the overall satisfaction scored an average rating of 8.7 ( score of 1 to 10)

Conclusion: Our results have shown that the involvement of doctors in rota management during this pandemic has allowed better use of human resources. As doctors are the most involved in clinical work, this allows them to accurately predict the number of staff required to cover clinical areas. This ensures adequate staffing to maintain patient safety whilst also keeping exposure of staff to a minimum.