15 December 2008
A new online system which helps NHS organisations communicate
with their staff, launched by two junior doctors from Bristol, has
won backing from University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation
Trust.
The DocCom project started three years ago, originally to tackle
communications problems between NHS Trusts and Deaneries and their
junior doctors. DocCom is a portal combining web, mobile,
email and social networking technology to target appropriate
communication to relevant people at the right time. It
provides a single point of access for information for junior
doctors for their training, development and work and allows a
mechanism for them to feed back to their organisation. It
also allows doctors to communicate with each other.
Founders Dr Jonathan Bloor and Dr Jonathan Shaw hit on the idea
of setting up the system when they saw for themselves the
challenges facing NHS organisations, which need to keep in regular
contact with a highly mobile workforce.
Dr Bloor explains: There are more than 50,000 junior doctors in
the UK who are employed on a semi-permanent basis and rotate
between hospital specialties, hospital sites and between Trusts as
frequently as every three months. They have no base and are a
mobile work force. Acute Trusts and Deaneries struggle to
keep tabs on where their doctors are what they are doing and how to
communicate with them. This is compounded by the complexity
of the NHS and the multiple bodies involved in the management and
training of doctors.
We surveyed all the medical directors of acute Trusts in England
and had a 50% response rate. 90 per cent of respondents said
they could not communicate effectively with their junior
doctors.
"This communication problem really impacts on efficiency and
patient care and our vision is to create an NHS wide communication
network linking NHS organisations with their staff. Although
this system was originally designed to aid communication with
junior doctors, it can be used to improve links with all staff.
Following a successful pilot for junior doctors at University
Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and, with the help of the
Trust and NHS Innovations South West, a spin-out company was formed
with the Trust as a major shareholder.
Dr Graham Rich, Chief Executive of University Hospitals Bristol
NHS Foundation Trust, says: This is an important project that I
believe will benefit the wider NHS. It has changed and improved how
we communicate with the junior doctors for the benefit of our
patients.
The DocCom portal has now been successfully introduced at the
Severn Deanery.
Mr Davinder Sandhu, Dean, Severn Deanery, adds: We chose DocCom
because their system was designed by trainees themselves with a
special emphasis on communication between trainees.
