Give doctors work phones to tackle burnout and abuse, medics say
All doctors should be given work phones to help tackle burnout and protect medics from abuse, according to members of the British Medical Association (BMA).
It comes as one doctor described using six apps on her personal device to do her job 'safely', and revealed the trust she works at relies on WhatsApp to fill locum shifts.
Currently, there is no national NHS England policy that requires trusts to provide work phones to doctors or other staff.
Delegates at the BMA's annual representative meeting in Liverpool voted for the union to demand employer-funded mobile phones for all medical staff to carry out NHS or university work, while rejecting any expectation that medics should use personal devices for professional communication.
Dr Latifa Patel, chairwoman of the BMA's representative body and workforce lead, said: 'Many workplaces offer devices for professional communication, and the NHS should be no different.
'Doctors often work across the hospital site and in the community, including home visits, and need to be contactable.
'In recent years, we have seen an increasing reliance on doctors' own personal mobile phones.'
BMA members also called for 'robust' safeguards to protect doctors from inappropriate contact, including sexual harassment, while advocating for clear boundaries between work life and personal life to reduce burnout.
Dr Patel added: 'Using a work device, like a mobile phone, can help to define boundaries between work and home life, and significantly reduce burnout – something we know many doctors experience, and which is undoubtedly contributing to them either reducing their hours or leaving the NHS altogether.
'We also know some doctors are impacted by inappropriate contact, such as abuse or sexual harassment, sometimes in the form of unwanted messages and communication outside of work.
'Removing the reliance on personal devices is an action employers can take to mitigate these risks.
'We invite the Government to work with us to see how these devices can be introduced in the NHS as part of efforts to improve doctor wellbeing.'
Emma Andrews told delegates she uses six different apps on her personal phone to do her job 'safely and to do it well'.
She spoke of one incident where a medical team would not have been able to locate a patient in an 'obscure' room without using WhatsApp, with locum shifts in her trust also filled using the app.
'Before medicine, I was a civil servant, and I was provided with a phone, a laptop, because I needed it to do my job.
'It also provided security to the departments I worked in, so that government business only happened on government devices.
'Albeit it's not unreasonable to expect an employer to provide the tools I need to do my job.
'We shouldn't be subsidising the NHS with our data, with our battery life or with our work-life balance.'
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