Junior doctor rotations to restart in the summer

Planned job rotations for junior doctors in May, June and July were cancelled as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.

But HEE said all trainees in foundation and core posts will rotate as usual at the start of August, while rotations for various specialty programmes would be pushed into the later months of the year.

It said employers and trainees would be given notice of placements no later than eight weeks before the start date.

However, of the 40,000 trainees who will rotate in August, 10,000 will remain in the same local area. Around 60 per cent of these doctors will move to a site less than 18 miles away and HEE said it would seek to “minimise change and disruption for individuals”.

Doctors in training work in different departments and sometimes different hospitals. The dates they rotate are decided months in advance, with the majority of rotating in August.

Professor Sheona MacLeod, acting medical director for HEE, said: “We want to ensure that we minimise any disadvantages for trainees and provide certainty by giving as much notification as possible so that they have time to plan.”

It remains unclear whether clinical placements for undergraduate students will also be restarted and whether trusts would receive funding for this.

According to HEE, employers have been allocated funding until June for the usual clinical placements, although they are not currently taking place. The education and training provider said ongoing funding would depend on the restarting of clinical placements.

In March, HSJ reported that medical students were being drafted in to help during the pandemic.

According to the General Medical Council, 5,610 medical students were granted provisional registration but stressed this did not mean all started working in the NHS.