>
> This has always fascinated me about the ROI. The January 1st changeover
> seems such a bad idea, for several reasons. Firstly the New Year's Eve
> activity tends to continue until lunchtime, blending with a "secondary" rush
> of people who didn't manage to make it the night before, so New Year's Day
> is equally hideous. Added to that the likelihood that some of your seniors
> and middle-grades will expect to be off as they've just covered Christmas,
> or else they've just covered the night before. Finally it causes all sorts
> of headaches for those juniors who are trying to link in with UK schemes; I
> know, I've done that "cross-border" transition twice now! Of course you know
> all this Patrick, but has anyone tried to change it?
Adrian it has been tried before. There was a big impetus for change around
the time of the millenium as there was a fear( among the mangers who would
not be there on new Yeqrs Eve anyway) that every medical piece of technology
would fail and they wanted extra docs in all hospitals basically to stand
beside ventilators and such like as the new year approached.
I have to say here that there was no planned 1-2 year lay in for this rather
a 2-3 month rushed 'discussion session' with department officials. Their
plan was much as you intimate push the changeover back to Feb 1st (another
arbitrary date).
There were significant logistical problems around that at the time such as
For those on rotations which involve moving around the country significant
distances ( Ireland is not like the UK here and all roads and trains lead to
dublin, meaning that travel around the periphery can be quite difficult)
Rotations which involved movement would mean giving up current rented
apartment (too expensive for juniors to buy houses here) and renting a new
apartment for January 1st in new area. Had the proposed change been made
those moving would be homeless they would first have to find accommodation
in a short period and second have to pay 2 rentals for the month of january.
Second Interns (JHOs) are on scheduled rotations many to peripheral
hospitals and must do 6 months med 6 months surg. The department of healths
plan was for them to do 7 and 5 and hope the medical council wouldnąt mind
and that they would not have to do an extra month in one specialty in July
thus affecting the intake of SHOs for the next year.
Thirdly many rotations here are involved with the US and these would have
been planned for at least a year with the junior doc basically giving up
holidays for one 6 month period to go to US in Late december for their
change period. If the person is not able to go on time the post often falls
for that 6 months and there would be no post at home for them either ( not
an uncommon phenomenon on some poorly organised rotations at home either)
Fourthly the issue of just moving the date to coincide with UK changeover
did not have universal acceptance among juniors here either as there are
significant advantages to them having a month to organise prior to taking up
a job over there. For many moving this is a big career move usually to an
SpR post meaning 5-6 years in the UK at least. These guys work average 77
hour weeks here already leaving little time to organise lock stock and
however many smoking nappies, find accommodation in the UK and settle in to
the area prior to taking up post. The month here gives a nice leeway to get
life sorted out which you will admit is often a problem when people are very
career focussed for a significant period.
When the doc is considering a reverse move back to Ireland it is usually for
a substantive post ( not always but in the main it is for a senior
position). At this time the date of junior changeover should be irrelevant
as the start date for the doc in question should be a mutually agreed one
with the new employing authority.
Changing over on a Wednesday presents too many logistical problems,
finishing work at 5 or 6 pm , last trains leaving Connolly Station (for east
Coast and North East/North West) leave at 6.30 pm. Not Much time there.
Speaking as a non driver here. More sense to change on a Monday as fewer
inconvenienced if not on call for the weekend.
My proposals on this a few years back were that the changeover should take
place then second Monday in january ( 1st Monday is bank holiday sometimes)
and 1st Monday in July. Leaves time for those moving abroad, not too
inconvenient for those going to US and misses the great holiday shakeup
which Pat and others have to overcome every year. Remember in ireland there
are still some single consultant departments ( there are many departments
with no consultants) but the one person must be available every new years
day for new staff induction. This system would at least allow for the best
of both worlds here and should work quite well until the next millenium or
will it be the year 10000 when the computers throw up the next problem
Mick Molloy
>
> It would be relatively easy to move the changeover back by one month (moving
> it forward would, on the other hand, be more problematic). If you plan 1 to
> 2 years in advance, then it's just a matter of offering the juniors 7-month
> or 13-month contracts so that the posts end up changing on 1st February or
> 1st August. In the UK we felt so strongly about the dangers of changeover
> that we further tweaked it a few years back, so that it now occurs on the
> first Wednesday of February and August, rather than the 1st, which was
> always harder to manage, especially if it occurred at a weekend.
>
> It's just a thought, but I suspect it's the emergency physicians who suffer
> most from this "anomaly", and ironically you guys seem to have too much on
> your plate with other matters at the moment to worry about this particular
> problem. Enjoy your leave!
>
> Adrian Fogarty
>
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