I had my second meeting on Monday. Only 6 turned up, but had emails from others who had hoped to attend and couldn't, and another actually came to find me today to say he wished he had come. For once I think that SAS doctors here are feeling like they all want to be involved in something. The meeting was very like the first one, with the same issues being raised. Overwhelmingly the issue of the new contract and especially re-grading is being talked about as a source of great frustration. I have received several emails about the subject too. I will have to do something about this with HR and maybe involve the BMA with my LNC hat on. I have heard today that some SAS doctors aren't managing to get appraisals as their consultants say that they haven't been trained in being appraisers, so won't do them until they have. That seems a bit harsh as it is required for revalidation. I am planning on going on an appraisal training course, but am not sure if I can appraise those not in my specialty.
All in all a positive start and positive feedback from those who attended, who appear to be grateful for me taking on the post, and are keen for more such meetings.
I think that I will have another similar meeting about every 6 months to catch those who could'nt come, and to update the others.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Starting Out
I was appointed to this new post in April 2009, the first of it's kind in Worcester. These are new posts cropping up in Health Trusts around the country to aid the development of SAS Doctors (or Specialty Doctors as we are now called) I have never done anything like this before and thought that I would blog a diary, as I would have found diaries of others very useful to see how others were proceeding in this role and to get ideas.
I am an Associate Specialist in A&E, having regraded about 3 years ago from a Staff Grade after a lengthy process. I am also a SAS Doctor representative on our LNC.
The trust that I work in is on several sites, which complicates matters as I have to travel around for meetings.
The first thing that I have done is become friends with the ladies in the Postgraduate Education department. We have drawn up a list of all of the doctors to be included under my umbrella. Even this has not been easy. We thought that we had found them all-- Associate Specialists and Staff Grades- but have now realised that we should be including all those other odd posts which don't really fit into any category, such as Clinical Fellows, and those employed at a local hospital by the 'Friends'. I think we'll still be finding new doctors next year!
Trying to get in touch with those identified was the first challenge. Do we send hard copies of a letter, or email? I know for a fact that many doctors never access their emails. We decided to send both, and asked for them to reply on a slip their preferred contact details.
I have set up 2 meetings, one on each site, as an initial introduction to myself and what I will be doing. I did the first one last Monday, and will do another this Monday.
When I arrived at the first one we had only had 2 people confirm their attendance ( out of about 16) We had time to phone a few departments and in the end 10 came, which was great. They all seemed very interested in what I had to say-essentially that Appraisal is vital for progression through thresholds in new contract and Revalidation. ( I had realised a few days before that I haven't had one for a few years!) They were a bit spooked by the amount of CPD hours they need for Revalidation, but were glad of some tips to gain points fairly easily ie: online modules.
They were pleased that I am going to set up training sessions such as ILS, PILS, appraisal and Teaching the Teachers. -which will be useful as well as gaining CPD points.
We had a discussion about how the funding should be spent. My personal opinion is that it should'nt be a blanket extra bit of money for everyone, but should be given to those who need to do something special to really make a difference to their career or to their work for the trust. This would , of course, be monitored so that some weren't getting loads of extra funding and some none, but that it would all balance out over the course of several years. In general those present seemed to be in agreement with this policy.
Of the questions at the end, they were overwhelmingly to do with setting up the new contract and re-grading. Not really within my remit as SAS Doctor Tutor, but obviously something causing much angst. I have also had emails to this effect from those unable to attend the meeting but can I do anything about this matter. There was anger that those eligible for regrading to Associate Specialist were being turned down on the basis of lack of service need, but they were worried about appealing in case it caused a problem with relationships with their consultants. There were many who said that they had not moved forward with the new contract as they could not get their consultants to find time to do the job-planning exercise. I think I might have to deal with these with my LNC hat on, as things are obviously not progressing as smoothly as they could. The other problem highlighted was obtaining the time to attend meetings such as mine and any subsequent teaching sessions. I'm not quite sure how to tackle that at the moment.
All-in-all I think it was a successful meeting, I'm glad that a reasonable number attended, and it went on for over the hor, which I had initially worried about filling.
I have another meeting on Monday, and so far the number of replies is 6. Hopefully with a bit of phoning around on the day we can get more again.
I am an Associate Specialist in A&E, having regraded about 3 years ago from a Staff Grade after a lengthy process. I am also a SAS Doctor representative on our LNC.
The trust that I work in is on several sites, which complicates matters as I have to travel around for meetings.
The first thing that I have done is become friends with the ladies in the Postgraduate Education department. We have drawn up a list of all of the doctors to be included under my umbrella. Even this has not been easy. We thought that we had found them all-- Associate Specialists and Staff Grades- but have now realised that we should be including all those other odd posts which don't really fit into any category, such as Clinical Fellows, and those employed at a local hospital by the 'Friends'. I think we'll still be finding new doctors next year!
Trying to get in touch with those identified was the first challenge. Do we send hard copies of a letter, or email? I know for a fact that many doctors never access their emails. We decided to send both, and asked for them to reply on a slip their preferred contact details.
I have set up 2 meetings, one on each site, as an initial introduction to myself and what I will be doing. I did the first one last Monday, and will do another this Monday.
When I arrived at the first one we had only had 2 people confirm their attendance ( out of about 16) We had time to phone a few departments and in the end 10 came, which was great. They all seemed very interested in what I had to say-essentially that Appraisal is vital for progression through thresholds in new contract and Revalidation. ( I had realised a few days before that I haven't had one for a few years!) They were a bit spooked by the amount of CPD hours they need for Revalidation, but were glad of some tips to gain points fairly easily ie: online modules.
They were pleased that I am going to set up training sessions such as ILS, PILS, appraisal and Teaching the Teachers. -which will be useful as well as gaining CPD points.
We had a discussion about how the funding should be spent. My personal opinion is that it should'nt be a blanket extra bit of money for everyone, but should be given to those who need to do something special to really make a difference to their career or to their work for the trust. This would , of course, be monitored so that some weren't getting loads of extra funding and some none, but that it would all balance out over the course of several years. In general those present seemed to be in agreement with this policy.
Of the questions at the end, they were overwhelmingly to do with setting up the new contract and re-grading. Not really within my remit as SAS Doctor Tutor, but obviously something causing much angst. I have also had emails to this effect from those unable to attend the meeting but can I do anything about this matter. There was anger that those eligible for regrading to Associate Specialist were being turned down on the basis of lack of service need, but they were worried about appealing in case it caused a problem with relationships with their consultants. There were many who said that they had not moved forward with the new contract as they could not get their consultants to find time to do the job-planning exercise. I think I might have to deal with these with my LNC hat on, as things are obviously not progressing as smoothly as they could. The other problem highlighted was obtaining the time to attend meetings such as mine and any subsequent teaching sessions. I'm not quite sure how to tackle that at the moment.
All-in-all I think it was a successful meeting, I'm glad that a reasonable number attended, and it went on for over the hor, which I had initially worried about filling.
I have another meeting on Monday, and so far the number of replies is 6. Hopefully with a bit of phoning around on the day we can get more again.
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