Junior doctors monitoring

Template diary sheets

Employers are contractually obliged to monitor junior doctors’ New Deal compliance and the application of the pay banding system. Monitoring requires the collection of a variety of different data, including contracted hours, hours of duty and when those hours occur, hours of actual work and when those hours occur, and total and continuous rest periods. Monitoring should occur under representative conditions of work intensity (ie not at exceptionally quiet or busy periods, not when many or no doctors are away on leave) and should usually occur once every six-month post. Where juniors believe monitoring has taken place during an abnormal and unrepresentative period, they should request that their employers carry out a further round of monitoring. This request needs to be made in writing to their medical staffing department, or equivalent. You should keep a copy of this communication for your own records.

As NHS Employers state in their letter sent to employers to request monitoring information, diary cards form an important element of the pay process and to deliberately misuse the system by submitting false data constitutes fraud. If detected this could lead to disciplinary procedures and/or civil action and/or criminal prosecution. Incidents of this type would normally also be reported to the General Medical Council. This applies across the UK.

While recognising that few if any doctors would knowingly submit false data, NHS Employersand employers in Scotland have felt it necessary for purposes of demonstrable probity to ask that all diary cards contain a statement of accuracy and require the doctor’s signature before submission both to ensure accuracy and to remind doctors of their responsibilitiesSimilarly, to ask a Junior Doctor to falsify their monitoring data is a serious offence and must be reported to the senior management team and postgraduate dean. Counter-signing of monitoring forms by senior staff or managers is not a requirement of the monitoring framework, but the JDC supports the use of a statement of accuracy as this protects both the Junior Doctor and the employer.

Notes for the template diary cards:

1. You must record accurately the hours that you work. Failure to record your actual working hours could be construed as fraudulent.

2. If ‘natural breaks’ (at least 30mins every 4 hours) are not obtained the working pattern will be non-compliant with the New Deal (Band 3). If your shift is longer than 8 hours you should be taking 2 natural breaks, and 3 natural breaks if your shift is more than 12 hours long.

3. Natural breaks do not count as rest.By definition, therefore, they must be included as working time. Natural breaks are those breaks required in addition to periods of rest, as defined in the New Deal, the Terms and Conditions of Service and associated guidance.

4.. The New Deal defines rest as all the time on duty when not performing or waiting to perform a clinical or administrative task, and not undertaking a formal educational activity; but including time spent sleeping.

5. If you are on annual, study or sick leave, write this in each applicable row.

6. Use the 24-hr clock at all times

7. The New Deal defines work as all the time carrying out tasks for the employer, including periods of formal study/teaching, but does not include rest while on-call. For the purposes of defining work after 7pm, work begins when a doctor is disturbed from rest and ends when that rest is resumed. This includes, for example, time spent waiting to perform a clinical duty and time spent giving advice on the telephone.

8. A description of each type of shift pattern can be found in the BMA Junior Doctors’ Handbook.

Employer / Rota/ Specialty
Site / Working Pattern
Name / Monitoring Start Date
Grade / Monitoring End Date
Shift Start Time / Shift End Time
Date / Please mark X all time working
Leave time not working blank / Comment on any type of work undertaken including inappropriate bleep calls/duties
EXAMPLE:
/ / / Minutes past the hour
Time / 0-15 / 15-30 / 30-45 / 45-60
1200 / X / N / N / X / Meal break at 12.15 – 12.45
1300 / X / X / X
1400 / X / X / X / Finished shift at 14.45
Date / Please mark X all time working
Leave time not working blank / Comment on any type of work undertaken including inappropriate bleep calls/duties
/ / / Minutes past the hour
Time / 0-15 / 15-30 / 30-45 / 45-60
0700
0800
0900
1000
1100
1200
1300
1400
1500
1600
1700
1800
1900
2000
2100
2200
2300
2400
0000
0100
0200
0300
0400
0500
0600
0700
0800

Instructions:

Insert an X for any 15 minute period for which you are working

Leave the box blank for any 15 minute period that you are not working (but remember that natural breaks count as working time)

Insert an Nfor natural breaks (for example meal breaks)

Insert an R for periods of rest (other than natural breaks, which do not count as rest)

Declaration

I have checked the information on this form, and I hereby declare that the information it contains is correct and complete. I understand that, if it is not, action may be taken against me.

To enable the NHS to check that this form has been completed appropriately and honestly, and in order to prevent, detect and investigate fraud and other irregularities, I consent to the disclosure of relevant information.

Signature:……………………………………………… Date:………………………………..

Print Name:………………………………………………