Scheduling in NHS

Trying to simplify the conversation...

Remember when life was simple?

One doctor type, one patient type....

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

6am

11pm

Private availability slot

What changed?

EMIS and TPP happened

NHS patients are bound to a surgery
A surgery has one type NHS/EMIS or NHS/TPP
Availability shifts are EMIS or TPP*
The question became...

** and private or chat...

Which patients in the waiting room can a Doctor now pickup?

Simplest solution

Keep doctors in their lanes

Private Doctors see private patients
NHS/EMIS see EMIS patients
NHS/TPP see TPP patients

Simplest because...

Always one patient type - just like private is now
Doesn't matter if you're running late or ahead of schedule...
No need to worry about switching times between TPP and EMIS patients... (an original decision driver)

But what if i want one doctor to do both TPP and EMIS?

but... but... we said...

Fuck.

OK.. there [might] be a way

You can...
If we keep them sync'd (e.g. not staggered)

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

6am

11pm

EMIS

TPP

Dr Sync'd Shifts

Staggered would look like this

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

6am

11pm

EMIS

TPP

Dr Complicated Feck

But why not stagger?

Simplifies our problem...

Any shift at any point in a day can be sampled to determine the types of patients a doctor can see

WHAT IF...

..we used time-based querying for doctors next patient...

e.g. Can't we just use their current shift to determine

the patients they should see now?

We tried to make this work

EMIS Shift
13:00
to
14:00

Kevin (EMIS)

Leanne (EMIS)

Zak (EMIS)

Keith (EMIS)

Paul (TPP)

Ismail (TPP)

Unbooked

Matthew (TPP)

IDEAL
WORLD

Doctor swaps over

to TPP

TPP Shift
14:00
to
15:00

EMIS Shift
13:00
to
14:00

Kevin (EMIS)

Leanne (EMIS)

Zak (EMIS)

Keith (EMIS)

Paul (TPP)

Ismail (TPP)

If we run over

though...

Poor Keith

falls through

the cracks.

System

becomes

unpredictable

TPP Shift
14:00
to
15:00