Junior Doctor Rota Monitoring and Templates

Rota Monitoring for Templates

NHSGGC is committed to providing New Deal compliant and educationally sound working pattern for all junior doctors on training rotas. Therefore, a robust monitoring arrangement was put in place to ensure that rota templates are compliant, and to highlight issues that may lead to non-compliance. The purpose of monitoring is to ensure that the rota working pattern that has been approved by the department, compliance teams, NHS Education for Scotland and the Scottish Government is fit for purpose; that the rota is suitable for the work you are doing.

Junior doctor rota monitoring will take place every 6 months, over a 2 week period. All training grade staff are expected to record hours of work and rest accurately by completing a set of electronic monitoring forms, and the opening page of the electronic system for monitoring has a validation statement you will electronically sign to this effect. All completed documentation is returned to your Monitoring Officer for analysis in accordance with New Deal and WTR regulations. Once rota monitoring for your template is complete, you will receive a copy of the results within the time limits laid out.

Guidance on completing the DRS online diary can be found here

Under no circumstances during resident doctor rota monitoring should staff falsely inflate or decrease the record of hours or rest or be requested to do so. If you are put under any pressure to amend your monitoring information, please contact Medical Staffing.

Rota Templates

Our rota templates must comply with two sets of regulations

1. New Deal: is a package of measures designed to improve the conditions under which doctors in training worked. It provides guidance on hours of work, living and working conditions for all doctors in training
2. Working Time Regulations (WTR): is a directive from the Council of Europe enshrined in UK law in 1998, to protect the Health and Safety of workers by setting minimum requirements for working hours, rest periods and leave

NHSGGC are responsible for ensuring that junior medical staff can work in compliance with New Deal and WTR requirements. Non-compliance could result in financial penalty to the NHS board in which you are working, and a possible loss of training posts for that department

The 3 main types of working templates are detailed below:

Full Shift Rota (most junior doctors work on this pattern)

• Work carried out is intensive and continuous throughout the 24-hour period.
• Shifts do not exceed 14hours.
• A minimum of 8 hours of rest between shifts is required.
• Natural breaks are required (at least 30 minutes of continuous rest after 4 hours of continuous working).

On Call Rota

• Work is considered to be low intensity, particularly during OOH.
• Normal working pattern exists Monday-Friday for all trainees on the rota, and then an on-call person takes over to cover the remainder of each 24hour period.
• Frequency of on call cover depends on the number of trainees on the rota.
• Duty periods cannot exceed 32 hours on weekdays, or 56 hours at the weekend.
• At least 12 hours of rest between duty periods is required.
• Doctors are expected to spend half of their on call duty period undisturbed, of which a minimum of 5 hours is continuous rest between 10pm and 8am.

Partial Shift & 24hr Partial Shift Rota

• Work is considered to be higher intensity than on call, but less so than shift working.
• Duty periods do not exceed 16hours or 24hours depending.
• Natural breaks are required during normal working hours, and at least ¼ of the out-of-hours duty period should be spent undisturbed.

There are no strict rules about the total hours worked in any week, but average weekly hours must be under 48 over a 26-week reference period (for full time working).

Doctors in training must follow a rota template which has been approved. The rota is agreed, prior to being put in place, by the department in which it will be implemented, the compliance team at the NHS board (for New Deal and WTR) and is reviewed by the Scottish Government. Changes in your working pattern (e.g. swapping a shift) could result in non-compliance (for example, insufficient rest period after a run of nightshifts). Therefore, any changes must be discussed in advance with the rota master to ensure that they will not lead to problems.