Hospitals test a four-day week for emergency staff
Early results from a twelve-month trial show fewer resignations and shorter waits, at a cost the health service is still totting up.
The trial began as a retention measure rather than a wellbeing initiative. Two years of vacancies in emergency medicine had reached the point where rotas were being filled by agency staff at several times the cost of a permanent hire.
Participating departments moved to compressed rosters: four longer shifts, three days off, no reduction in pay. Managers expected waiting times to deteriorate and braced for complaints.
Instead, median waits fell slightly. Investigators attribute the improvement less to the rota than to the collapse in short-notice absence, which had been quietly destroying continuity on the old pattern.
The staffing picture improved sharply. Resignations in the trial departments ran at under half the rate of comparable units, and two hospitals reported filling consultant posts that had been open for more than a year.
The open question is cost. Running the model at full coverage required additional hires, and the savings on agency spending do not yet close the gap everywhere. A fuller economic evaluation is due at the end of the trial.
