Enhancement Update: ESR Streamlined Doctors in Training Interface with TIS

The NHSBSA ESR Team have been working hard with their partners to deliver a suite of improvements and updates to the interface with Health Education England’s (HEE) Trainee Information System (TIS).

The ESR Streamlined Doctors in Training Interface with TIS forms part of NHS England and Improvement’s Enabling Staff Movement Programme objectives, to improve the staff experience as they rotate between different NHS Organisations during the course of their training.

With 183 NHS Organisations across England subscribed to the ESR Streamlined Doctors in Training Interface with TIS and more coming on board every month, technical and functional enhancements have been delivered to Medical Staffing, Recruitment and HR staff across the country.

Interface Enhancements

Given the scale of the interface, enhancements have to be managed carefully, and recentlythe focus has been on improving the Applicant creation process and the Medical Rotation spreadsheet, known as the MEDROT. The enhancements are designed to improve usability and provide the NHS organisation receiving the trainee with more information. There are a number of future enhancements also being considered and these include:

1. Addition of a Grade column for current placements.
2. Addition of Sub Speciality columns for current and future placements.
3. Reformatting of the MEDROT spreadsheet to remove blank rows and unwanted headers to allow for easier filtering and sorting.

Person Update Functionality

The Person Update functionality allows data about employed doctors in training to be synchronised between TIS and ESR. This means that ESR exchanges a wider set of information with TIS, including personal information and address details (amongst others) upon hire. If the information held in TIS is different to that held within ESR, TIS will be updated with the information from ESR.

This new capability makes it even more important for Trusts to maintain their ESR position and person information for Trainee Doctors, as this information will be shared securely outside of ESR. Use of ESR Self Service is a great way to ensure that trainees can maintain their own data, hence Trusts should be taking full advantage of this opportunity and promote the use of Self Service, wherever possible. Trusts are also encouraged to implement and make use of the Applicant dashboard as this is a further opportunity for Trainees to view and update their details at the earliest point in the journey of joining a new employer.

The ESR Person Update functionality became available in TIS from November 2020 with a small proportion of Trusts. Following its soft launch, HEE will continue implementation to achieve full capability early in 2021.

User Support Resources

Following the conclusion of the user communication series - with the Refresh Webinar on 14^th December, the user support resources for the interface have undergone a detailed review and consolidation to provide ongoing support as a one-stop-shop for all interface queries.

Users can now find an extensive FAQ document which brings together common questions received during previous communication events and expansion on key areas. This is supplemented by the Implementation Checklist which provides an ‘at-a-glance’ summary of the key activities required prior to implementing the interface.

For those wanting a comprehensive view of the interface and its functionality, the ESR-NHS0111 - Streamlined ESR and Junior Doctor Interface Guide remains available.

All this and more can be found on the ESR Hub. Simply navigate to ‘Explore Resources’ > ‘ESR Functionality Guidance’ > ‘Doctors in Training’ and remember to check back for updates.