Role shadowing arrangements for junior doctors announced

Role shadowing arrangements for junior doctors announced:
Junior doctors will spend a minimum of four working days shadowing the job that they will be taking up from this summer, it was announced. The Department of Health asked Medical Education England (MEE) for advice on enabling junior doctors to make the transition from student to doctor and employee in the safest way possible.
The MEE Shadowing Steering Group on national shadowing arrangements for appointees to the foundation programmer published by Medical Education England advised that shadowing should be undertaken with the aim that junior doctors are safe, provide a high quality service to patients and are well prepared to start work as a new doctor.
NHS Medical Director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, said:
‘There is some evidence of increased risk to patients as new doctors take their first steps. So, learning from pilots across the country, we have agreed that all new first year doctors should undertake a period of paid shadowing the doctor they will be replacing, for a period of at least four days. That scheme will start this year, and will operate in late July every year.
Patient safety and providing a high quality service is at the heart of a modern NHS. This shadowing period could potentially save lives, and will equip new junior doctors with the local knowledge and skills needed to provide safe, high quality patient care, from their first day as a doctor.’
Three pilots have been carried out over the last three years, at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge / University of East Anglia, and Cardiff Medical School. Department of Health