JUNIOR MEDICAL STAFF ABSENCE MANAGEMENT PROCEDURE & GUIDELINES
SECTION 1: MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS
Management Arrangements
Current management arrangements for Junior Medical staff will remain unchanged. For completeness the arrangements for Medical Staff are described below:
Role / Line ManagerJunior Dr (FY1 & 2) / Supervising Consultant with support of Clinical Tutors
Other Junior Drs / Supervising Consultants with support of Programme Directors
Other Trust Drs / Consultants
Consultant & Ass Specialist / Clinical Directors
CD / Medical Directors
Role of Line Manager (for Juniors, Clinical Tutors and Supervising Consultants)
As with any other line management role in the organisation this individual is responsible for the authorisation of annual leave and performance management of individuals, including conduct issues, sickness absence, time keeping and clinical competence. For Juniors this will be done closely with the Clinical Tutors.
How line managers discharge their responsibility for these important tasks will greatly impact our reputation as an employer of choice, reflect the management of incidents and complaints, and it could significantly influence locum expenditure.
Role of Clinical Tutors
The role of the Clinical Tutor is three fold; they have a role to play for the Deanery, for the organisation and for the individual Junior Doctors. They largely look after the younger doctors and will take a holistic approach when doing so. They will deal with the performance management of them, including clinical competence issues and conduct issues such as sickness, timekeeping etc. The tutors work closely with the supervising consultants in their role. We should consider how this relationship can be more effective in the management of juniors.
Role of Employee
All employees, including medical staff, have an obligation to comply with organisational policies and procedures. They have a duty to report sickness correctly and plan and seek authorization of annual leave in accordance with Trust guidelines.
Role of Medical Workforce
The Medical Workforce Team will develop appropriate policies and provide training and support through the implementation of these policies. They will develop systems and processes to support managers in their role to ensure consistent approaches are applied across the organisation.
SECTION 2 : SICKNESS ABSENCE
1. Overview
These procedural guidelines are designed to provide a basis for Junior Medical Staff to notify the Trust and their Department of their sickness absence in order to ensure that continuity of care is maintained and the service adequately covered.
The guidelines provide the basis for the notification, recording and monitoring of all sickness absence for Junior Medical Staff.
2. Sickness Absence Notification and Certification
Notification
When
· When unable to attend work due to illness, all Junior Medical Staff are responsible for contacting the Medical Workforce Team their line manager, (or a nominated individual), by telephone to inform them of their sickness absence and reasons for it, as soon as practicable and in all instances before their shift is due to start or line with local reporting procedures.
· For Out-of-hours duty periods this should be at least 4 hours before your shift.
· For night duties this should be well before 5pm wherever possible.
· Only in exceptional circumstances (i.e. when hospitalised) can an employee nominate someone else to make contact with their line manager.
How
0830-1700: Call the Medical Workforce Team
· Call ext (0121 42) 40217 for Medicine or (0121 42) 41349 for Surgery.
· You will be transferred to a consultant in your department to notify them.
Out of hours: Call switchboard to speak to Consultant on call
· Speak to switchboard – they will assist you.
· They will arrange for you to talk to the consultant on call for your specialty
· Switchboard will also transfer you to the automated system of the Medical Workforce Team. Here you will simply leave all absence detail information.
It is not sufficient to leave a message with switchboard, a junior colleague, a secretary or anyone else outside of this procedure.
What to Record
· When notifying the Medical Workforce Team and the line manager of their sickness absence Junior Medical Staff must provide as much information as possible, including the reason for the absence and/or symptoms at the time of reporting in; the estimated length of absence; any work that needs to be covered during the absence and a contact telephone and address details for the absence period.
· This information will be recorded by the Medical Workforce Team and stored confidentially in the individual’s personal file.
· A copy of the form used to collect the necessary information from the employee is detailed within Appendix 1
Keeping in Touch
· All Junior Medical Staff are contractually obliged to maintain contact with their line manager during any period of absence. Furthermore in order to ensure the appropriate support is provided to Junior Medical Staff during periods of absence managers are responsible for maintaining regular contact with employees.
· As each sickness absence cases differs it is not appropriate to be prescriptive on how often contact should be made however, as a guide, it is anticipated in cases exceeding 3 days that employees will contact their manager on a weekly basis. Discussions about keeping in touch should be held upon the first day of absence when an employee reports in.
· If the employee knows their date of return to work they must inform their line manager and the Medical Workforce Team and confirm the date of return prior to returning to work. If the employee is able to return to work sooner than previously indicated, then they should obtain a ‘fit note’ from their GP and inform their department or ward as soon as possible so that any cover that has been arranged can be cancelled.
· Conversely, if an employee is unable to return to work as expected, they should inform their manager and the Medical Workforce Team as above.
· Where staff are able to return to work after sick leave but are rostered for off duty days, it is important that they telephone their manager to confirm that they are fit to return to work, otherwise, the off-duty day may be counted as part of the sick leave period.
Certification
· Appropriate certification should be provided to cover the entire sickness absence period, as follows:
Length of Absence / Type of Certification / When to submit / Who to submit to / Location7 Calendar Days or less / Self- Certificate / As soon as is reasonably practicable or immediately on return to duty / Medical Workforce Team / Appendix 1
More than 7 Calendar Days / Medical or GP Certificate / As soon as reasonably practicable and within 7 days of expiry date of last certificate / Medical Workforce Team / n/a
· In exceptional circumstances, employees maybe required to produce a medical certificate before the eighth day of sickness absence. If this is the case, any charge for obtaining a certificate will be reimbursed by the Trust
· Back dated medical certificates will not be accepted as valid, except where there are extreme mitigating circumstances which meant that the employee was unable to obtain a certificate.
· All certificates will be treated as confidential and stored accordingly in a secure location.
Sickness whilst on duty
· If an employee falls ill whilst on duty the line manager should make the decision to send the employee home or liaise with Occupational Health for advice as appropriate.
· The employee’s sickness should be recorded in hours on the monthly turnaround document. A file note should be made and recorded on the employees file and if this situation occurs on a regular basis it will be taken into account when dealing with issues under persistent short-term absences. (see Sickness Absence Policy)
Sickness Occurring During Annual Leave
· If illness occurs during a period of annual leave, the employee must inform the Medical Workforce Team and follow the normal reporting arrangements.
· The employee will be regarded as being on sick leave provided a medical certificate is produced to that effect and annual leave will be suspended from the date of the certificate.
· If an employee returns from annual leave and states they were sick whilst on annual leave but had no notification was given at the time then this will not be regarded as sick leave.
Medical Appointments
· Wherever possible hospital, doctors or dentist appointments should be booked outside of normal working hours. Where this is not possible appointments should be made as close to the beginning or end of working hours to minimise disruption to the working day. Consideration may be given by the line manager to working extra time on another day and/or reasonable time off being given to attend such appointments. This applies to all staff irrespective of whether they work full or part time hours. Arrangements should be made in agreement with the appropriate line manager, providing as much notification as possible.
· Time off for appointments will not be recorded or classified as sickness absence, however should treatment provided during such appointments prevent an employee from returning to duty such time should be classified as sickness absence.
Unauthorised Absence
· Failure to follow the reporting procedure and/or failure to provide appropriate certification to cover the entire period of absence may lead to the absence being classed as unauthorised, pay being suspended and disciplinary action being taken.
· For further information on unauthorised absence from work please refer to the Trust Disciplinary Procedure..
4. Return to Work Discussions
When to complete
· Following each episode of sickness absence, the manager should meet with the individual for a return work discussion upon their first shift/day back. Due to service reasons (i.e. shift patterns) it may not always be possible to complete the return to work discussion face-to-face. Where this is the case, it is anticipated that the return to work discussion will be completed by telephone with a follow up face to face meeting arranged at the earliest opportunity
How to complete
· The return to work discussion is an informal meeting designed to:
- Confirm with the employee the reason for absence
- Confirm the employees fitness to resume duty.
- Explore any other factors affecting an employee’s attendance at work (i.e. personal or domestics circumstances, relationships with colleagues)
- Discuss whether or not it is appropriate to complete a referral to Occupational Health (if this has not already been completed during the absence
- Highlight and explore, where appropriate, concerns relating to the attendance record of an employee.
· The return to work discussion should be completed in a sensitive and constructive manner and be recorded using the Return to Work Discussion Form in Appendix 1. A copy of the return to work discussion form should be stored in the employees file for future reference.
Appendix – The Forms
Form / When to UseSickness Reporting In and Notification Form / To record details of absence when employee notifies line manager of absence.
To be placed on employees personal file.
Sickness Self Certification Form / To be completed and submitted by employees for absences of 7 or less calendar days.
Return To Work Discussion Form / To be completed during a return to work discussion with employee after each episode of sickness absence.
To be placed on employee’s personal file and copy given to employee.
Reporting In & Notification Form
This form should be completed when an employee is reporting in sick for duty/work. In normal circumstances sickness absence should be reported by the individual employee to the Medical Workforce Team, who will complete this form and their immediate line manager at the earliest opportunity and in all circumstances prior to the commencement of shift.
This form should be stored in the employee’s personal file for future reference.
Basic Details
Employee NameJob Title/ Role
Ward/Department/Directorate Area
Shift/Hours due to be worked
Reason for Sickness Absence
Overview of symptoms
Estimated Length of Absence
Contact Phone Number / Home Mobile
Contact Address Details
Call Received by (Print Name)
Time & Date of Call
Support Questions and Actions
Has the individual been to the GP/booked an appointment?Is there any immediate work that needs to be covered?
Is the doctor due to be undertaking an on-call duty? If so is cover required?
If cover is required, have Clinical Bank been notified?
Keeping in touch
Confirm arrangements for keeping in touch as appropriateOther Comments/Actions
Medical Workforce contactSignature
Date Entered onto ESR
Confidential Self Certificate Form
Basic Details
Employee NameJob Title/Role
Ward/Department & Directorate Areas
Employee Number
Absence Details
I certify that I was unable to attend work due to sickness/ injury from ……../……/…… to ……/……/…….. inclusive (including non-working days)
Please detail reasons for absence.I can confirm that the total working days lost during this sickness absence episode was / Days
Was this absence related to a workplace accident or incident? / Yes / No
If Yes, please provide incident report form number
Absence Notification
Date of absence notificationMethod of notification
(i.e. phone call, email, text message)
Absence notified to (Name and Title)
Declaration
I hereby sign to confirm that the details provided above are true and accurate and I understand that if I knowingly provide inaccurate or false information about my absence it may lead to action being taken under the Trust Disciplinary Procedure.Signature: ……………………………………Date: ……......
Return to Work Discussion
A return to work discussion should be completed following each episode of absence. This form is designed to act as a guide for line managers when completing return to work discussions and act as record of the return to work discussion for the line manager and employee.
Basic Details
Employee NameJob Title/Role
Ward/Department & Directorate Areas
Employee Number
Absence Overview
First Day of AbsenceLast Day of Absence
Type of Absence (i.e. Self Certified / Certified/ Unauthorised)
What was the reason(s) for absence? (please note and detail)
Where there any other reasons affecting the absence (i.e. personal or domestic circumstances; work-related problems)
Is the employee fit to return to work?
Are there any support mechanisms which need to be put into place to support the employee at this time? (i.e. reasonable adjustments to role/tasks/hours/shifts)
Discussion of Concerns