Guardian of Safe Working
Guardians of Safe Working are in place to ensure that issues of compliance with safe working hours are addressed in line with the 2016 resident doctor contract. The introduction of the Guardian role helps to protect both patients and doctors by ensuring that colleagues-in-training are not working unsafe hours. Acting as a champion of safe working, the Guardian receives your exception reports and escalates any discrepancies as necessary to enable a decision and relevant action to take place.
- Each trust in the UK has a Guardian of Safe Working (GoSW). They will be named on your work schedule before you commence each post
- Their role is to oversee the exception reporting process and ensure any issues are dealt with in a timely way
- If patterns in reporting are noted, the GoSW will highlight the issues to the relevant clinical lead so they can be addressed.
- If there are recurrent breaches of the rota rules as set out in the contract – fines can be applied to the departments, with any money raised available to be spent by the Junior Doctors Forum
- If you do not feel comfortable submitting an exception report directly to your named supervisor, please submit it directly to the GoSW and they will contact you to discuss any issues.
Bedford:
- Our Guardian of Safe Working at Bedford is Dr D Chattopadhyay, who can be contacted by email dipankar.chattopadhyay@bedfordhsopital.nhs.uk or in his office Monday afternoon
L&D:
- Our Guardian of Safe Working at Luton is Dr M Hemavathi, who can be contacted by email: muniswamy.hemavathi@ldh.nhs.uk
L&D:
- Every third Thursday of every month
- MS Teams at 3:30pm (the link will be sent out)
Bedford:
- Second Thursday of every month
The BMA supports the role of Guardians of Safe Working (GOSW) to ensure that junior doctors work within safe working hours. GOSWs are independent of the management structure and are responsible for:
- Reviewing work schedules
- Addressing concerns about working hours and training opportunities
- Escalating discrepancies to enable action to be taken
- Providing assurance to doctors and employers that working hours are safe
GOSWs receive exception reports from doctors, which can be submitted for any variation from the planned work schedule. The supervisor has seven days to respond to the report, and the doctor should respond as soon as possible. If outcomes are not closed, they will be automatically accepted and closed at the end of the rotation.
The role of GOSW aims to improve the working lives of doctors in training, the overall health of the organization, and highlight areas for improvement.
If you have questions about your working life, you can contact BMA advisers at support@bma.org.uk or 0300 123 1233.
Further details Safe working in general practice toolkit (bma.org.uk)