Understanding the Medical Rota, Study &
Annual leave requesting & the Divisional
sickness policy
Introduction
By the end of this short Powerpoint you will be able to:
• Find your rota on the hospital intranet.
• Interpret the on call rota, and the expected duties whilst on call.
• Look ahead to find your rota for duration of your post.
• Understand the duties and expectations for each working day.
• Look at future rotation positions and find rota for new position.
• Follow the proper process for requesting study and annual leave.
• Follow the proper process for reporting sickness and absence, and be able to find the policy on the intranet.
Medicine Intranet Page
The Medicine Intranet Page contains all of the
information you need regarding leave
requests and your working patterns.
From opening the intranet click:
• Departments
• Department listings
• Medicine
On the left hand side you will find links to
annual and study leave forms, sickness and
absence reporting policy and the medical
rotas.
Medical Rota
Where can the Rota be found?
In September 2010 the Medical Rotas were
uploaded to the intranet, within the Medicine
website.
The Rota can be accessed by following the
link below:
http://webapps/intranet/departments/medicine
/rota.asp
Alternatively, once on the intranet. If you click
– departments, department listings, medicine
and then medical rotas, you will arrive at the
same screen.
Once here if you click medical rota in the
centre the file will open.
(You may need to click enable macros, and
then yes to update the information)
Getting to know the Medical Rota
When the Rota first opens you will be taken to
the home screen showing the on call rota for
the current week.
However, utilising the 4 main tabs within the
Rota will be key to understanding your weekly
responsibilities.
The 4 main tabs at the bottom of the sheet
are:
• Weekly Rota
• Expected Duties
• Future Rotas
• UH & Rugby Site Shift index
•Of the other tabs, weekend plans shows the
on call doctors for the weekend.
Agency contact info gives the information of
the most common used agencies.
Finally the weekend register, this is currently
still in development.
The Weekly Rota
The weekly rota is key so that at a glance the
on call doctors can be identified. However, if
you click the date at the top you can select
future dates from the drop down list.
The yellow boxes on the left hand side identify
the level of the doctor on call, the shift pattern
they’re on and the bleep they should be
carrying.
If you correlate this to the dates running along
the top, you can identify who should be
covering each post. Inevitably there will
occasionally be vacant posts, which will show
as vacant. However, temporary staffing will
continually work to fill these and update the
rota with the information of the covering.
As well as showing the information for UH the
on call rota for Rugby can be seen at the
bottom of the sheet in the same format.
Expected Duties
The expected duties tab explains in more
detail what is expected whilst you are on call.
The top 3 boxes on this sheet detail who
should be at which handover meeting, what is
expected, who is working together and also
the areas covered. There are also the bleep
numbers for the arrest team for reference.
Further to this there is a breakdown for each
individual doctor showing:
• The area the doctor should be covering.
• Expected duties whilst on call
• The start and finish times of the on call.
• Where the doctor needs to report to at the
start of the shift.
• Additional information about handover times
and where to pick up the relevant on call
bleep.
This varies slightly for shifts worked during the
week and at the weekend. If you scroll further
down you will see the weekend working
information in the same format.
Future Rotas
Another key tab, future rotas, allows an
individual to see their rota for their entire
rotation. When you first open the tab, it will
default to show the current week. However,
this filter can be removed to show all dates.
Once you know the post you are allocated
into you can then filter by this to show your
weekly rota in it’s entirety.
When doing so please ensure that you are
allocated to do both the day duties and on call
duties of the post. Very rarely are they
different, however, if they are and you have
any questions about where you should be
please contact us.
Once you have filtered your name, you can
correlate this with the week commencing and
days of the week to see where are expected
to be on each working day. This can be see in
the coloured boxes which summarise the shift
you should be working.
UH & Rugby site shift index
Understanding the coded shifts can be
confusing! Therefore the site shift index tab is
extremely useful in describing what the code
actually means.
As a handy guide it also has the start and
finish times for each shift, and any relavant
comments.
If you scroll down the index does actually
show the codes for shifts at both UH and
Rugby.
Current and Future Team Lists
There has been a new tab added onto the
Medical Rota. This new tab is important as it
now shows the list of the Current Post Holder,
which is who is occupying each post for each
specialty. The column next to this shows who
is going to be each occupying each post in
the next rotation.
This is incredibly useful as it means that
Doctors on rotation will be able to see what
posts they will be going into on their next
rotation, meaning that it will be easier to sort
out leave as the Doctors will know what they
are meant to be working.
To view the new rota once the position is
know for the next rotation, click the future rota
tab on the bottom of the rota and you can
filter down the post to the one the Doctor is
looking for, to show their own individual rota.
Sickness and absence reporting
From the Medicine Intranet home page you
will notice there is a link to sickness and
absence reporting.
If you follow the link you will find the sickness
and absence reporting policy of the Division.
Sickness and absence reporting process for Medical Division
It is the responsibility of all staff to report their absence as soon as they become unavailable for work due to sickness, injury or accident.
Within working hours, they should report to the Division using the dedicated telephone line 02476 966083 or ext 26083. If there is no
answer, a message should be left so that the absence is recorded. Leaving a message with a colleague or another department or sending
a text or email does not satisfy the notification procedure, and using the dedicated phone line is the only acceptable method. Out of hours,
the process remains the same, except it is the responsibility of the member of staff to also notify the first on call manager.
The phone call should be made by the employee, however, it is recognised that in some situations this is not practical and they should ask
someone to ring in on their behalf. When reporting sickness the member of staff should state:
•Why they are absent
•When they last worked
•How long they are likely to be absent or when they expect to return to work
•Duties and working location over this period
If sickness continues beyond one day, it is the responsibility of the member of staff to notify the Division, and provide notification of the
intention to return to work before 2pm on the last day of absence.
Staff must report their absence at the earliest possible opportunity prior to their normal starting time so that cover can be arranged if
necessary. Within working hours the Division will then notify the affected clinical team and arrange appropriate cover. Out of hours, the first
on call manager will notify the first on call registrar who can move the existing junior doctors around to cover the necessary functions and
inform the first on call manager of any cover still required.
Failure to abide by these reporting requirements could result in the episode being regarded as unauthorised absence and pay being
stopped pending a further investigation of the circumstances. However, in normal circumstances this would only be done once the
Division had made reasonable efforts to contact the employee. Failure to report in when absent may also result in disciplinary action being
taken which may include permanently withholding pay for the period of unauthorised absence.
All periods of absence will be recorded against the doctors record and given to CD and educational supervisor. If there are 3 episodes of
sickness in any 6 month period, or 5 episodes in 12 months - a 100% attendance target is set for 6 months. If this is breached the member
of staff will be referred to a disciplinary hearing.
Sickness and absence reporting process for Medical Division
Study and annual leave
Study leave and annual leave forms are also
available electronically. All requests for leave
must be made electronically, and the
necessary forms can be found on the intranet
– from the Medicine home page.
The authorisation process for annual and
study leave can also be found within this link
to ensure the process is understood.
It is important to note, that if your leave
request means you need to swap any on call
commitments, a change of duties form must
be printed and signed by both doctors
swapping shifts. This must be delivered to the
Medical Divisional offices on the 2nd floor
opposite Ward 22.
Contact information
Most importantly, keep in contact with us!
On completion of this presentation we would be really grateful if you could send a short email to
medicine.leave@uhcw.nhs.uk with your name, contact telephone number, email address and bleep number.
Also don’t be afraid to come and see us. The management team for the Medical Division are based in the Divisional
Offices opposite Ward 22. If you have any concerns or want to talk anything through, please come and talk to us.