> I wonder if the practice of calling a consultant on-call into the
department because of breaches happening throughout the country. [Ash]
I suppose there's nothing stopping management from locally negotiating this
arrangement, with either premium payment or time (and a third) off in lieu.
By the same token, however, I don't believe it would be sensible to opt for
such a working pattern. Like many, I don't mind working towards targets
during my shop floor shifts, but outside of this I believe consultants - and
middle grades on call, for that matter - should only respond for genuine
clinical needs.
> That needs to go in your diary, Ash, and then you need your 11 hours rest
for being disturbed. [Rowley]
I thought the 11 hours' rest rule only applied to the New Deal (for
juniors). Does it also apply to the WTD (for seniors)? If so, that's another
good argument to resist a pattern of working which involves responding to
out-of-hours breaches. As Ray rightly points out, such an arrangement would
certainly be attractive (i.e. cost-effective) to management. However, if
managers are concerned about out-of-hours breaches, then they simply need to
roster more staff for out-of-hours shifts (i.e. expensive).
> The BAEM advice is that Consultant staff should not queuebust under any
circumstances. [Rowley]
Out of hours, indeed, but I don't believe BAEM are prescriptive about "queue
busting" during a clinical shift.
Adrian Fogarty
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