Right People: What’s Next for Medical Workforce Solutions
RLDatix rosters more than 100,000 medics. That is a responsibility the product team takes seriously, particularly as the context around job planning, resident doctor reform and productivity intensifies. In this session from the Connected Health & Care Summit 2026, Richard Kitchen, Head of Product for Medics and Temporary Staffing at RLDatix, explores what has been delivered across Job Plan, Rota and Appraisal, what is coming in the next 12 months, and shares four research insights from contextual fieldwork with consultants that are reshaping how the products are designed.
Watch Richard Kitchen walk through the full medics product roadmap, including Job Plan integration with RLD Intelligence, Ask Job Plan AI, a calendar-first redesign, and a prototype that turns hours of team job planning into minutes.
What the session covers and what has been delivered
This session covers the full medics product suite across Job Plan, Rota, Appraisal and scheduling in Optima. The key developments discussed were:
- Job Plan screens are now eight times faster. Integration to ESR is live, enabling comparison of job plans against pay. Integration to Optima has been improved
- Rota delivered critical compliance updates for England and Wales contract reforms, supported by 12 drop-in sessions reaching 352 individuals across 143 organisations
- Appraisal now includes QR code patient feedback and is included in the Job Plan commercial package at no additional cost
- Optima medics scheduling has refined anaesthetics workflows, delivered ideas, portal enhancements, and has the theater list switcher coming soon for last-minute cancellation redeployment
- Ask Job Plan, an AI assistant embedded in the product, is planned to help consultants navigate workflows and understand concepts like PAs and DCCs at point of need
The four research insights and what they mean for design
Richard Kitchen shares four insights from contextual fieldwork with consultants. First, reporting and operational oversight requires Excel or manual manipulation. In response, Job Plan data is being connected to RLD Intelligence providing a centralised platform automating this process, available through Data Hub and Oversight at no additional cost.
Second, a consultant said: “Honestly, I thought job planning was a HR thing.” Consultants may arrive with limited formal training, with knowledge potentially fading over time, and user guides are hard to find. Ask Job Plan will provide AI-powered answers embedded directly in the product.
Third, the system is the record, not the workflow. Planning and negotiation happen elsewhere, then someone copies and pastes into the system. A calendar-first redesign puts the weekly view at the centre, with onboarding options for first-time users and demand plan uploads from spreadsheets.
Fourth, a prototype built during innovation week demonstrated uploading an external demand plan that auto-categorises activities, builds capacity plans and pre-populates team job plans in minutes.
What this means for organisations and who it is relevant to
Richard Kitchen frames everything against the operating context. The Darzi review identified an £18 billion productivity gap. The NHS has a 2% year-on-year productivity target. Job plan sign-off at 95% must be reported to the board monthly. Resident doctor reform includes contract changes, exception reporting and the 10-point plan. Financial constraints drive agency reduction targets and premium rate optimisation.
The roadmap responds directly. For Rota, the shift is from compliance to user experience, automation and data enablement. Automated work schedule generation from rotas is a key priority. Loading doctors into the system via ESR through Optima into Job Plan is planned to reduce the rotation onboarding burden. Rota management workflows are being explored for Loop, including leave management and exception reporting.
For Appraisal, the long-term vision moves from annual activity to continuous professional development with AI nudges prompting reflection, dictation for evidence capture and PDP suggestions. GMC Connect integration is planned.
Richard Kitchen closes with four guiding principles: systems adapt to users, compliance and flexibility are not a trade-off, effort is minimised through automation, and the numbers must be right.
This session is relevant to medical workforce managers, job planning leads, rota coordinators, medical directors, clinical directors, finance leads and anyone responsible for medics productivity, scheduling or compliance.
Frequently asked questions
The session is presented by Richard Kitchen, Head of Product for Medics and Temporary Staffing at RLDatix. He covers the full medics product suite including Job Plan, Rota, Appraisal and scheduling in Optima, with live prototypes and design concepts from contextual research with consultants.
Key screens are now eight times faster. Integration from Job Plan to ESR is live, enabling pay versus plan comparison. Integration to Optima has been improved. Managers can send email notifications directly from the system. Reporting for national requirements has been updated. Auto-fill has been added to reduce manual input. Appraisal is now included in the Job Plan commercial package at no additional cost.
Ask Job Plan is a planned AI-powered assistant embedded directly within the Job Plan product, working in a similar way to Ask Optima. It will help consultants navigate workflows, understand concepts like DCC, SPA and PA calculations, and answer questions at the point of need. It is designed to address the challenge of maintaining job planning knowledge over time and the lack of formal job planning training highlighted through the research.
Research with consultants revealed that the current system is a record, not a workflow. The redesign puts a calendar at the centre, with days on the left and time across the top in a format designed to reflect how consultants naturally plan their working week.. New users get onboarding options: first-time walkthrough, copy last year’s plan, upload from Excel, or import a best practice template. PA totals and status are visible throughout.
Coming soon, the theater list switcher addresses last-minute cancellations that prevent theater sessions being delivered. When a team member is unavailable, the tool allows quick reassignment of theater lists so that available staff can maintain clinics and sessions. Richard Kitchen connects this to Professor Martin Elliott’s earlier session on medical teams and the cost of cancelled operations.
Having completed contract reform compliance for England and Wales, the Rota roadmap shifts to user experience, automation and data enablement. Key priorities include automated work schedule generation from rotas, improved doctor loading via ESR through Optima, and exploring integration of rota management workflows into Loop for tasks like leave management and exception reporting.
Job Plan data is being connected to RLD Intelligence through Data Hub and Oversight, included at no additional cost. This enables organisations to see job plan sign-off rates benchmarked against peers. Discover will follow, allowing drill-down by division and unit. Rota and Appraisal data will also be added, creating a single view of planning, scheduling and safety data.
The long-term vision transforms appraisal from an annual activity into a continuous professional development assistant. AI will nudge clinicians to reflect on weekly learning, evidence can be recorded through dictation, and PDP suggestions will be generated based on inputs. GMC Connect integration is planned. Short-term improvements include usability enhancements and voice input from autumn onwards.
