Diary Cards – Group Analysis
Longest Duty
If the start of the next day’s duty is the same or before the end of the previous day’s duty, then work is continuous, and the length of the duties are added together. For an on call duty, the target longest duty is different for weekend and weekday. If the duty, or last duty of a sequence starts after 19:00 on a Friday, or at any time on Saturday or Sunday, then it is considered to be a weekend duty. Otherwise, it is a weekday duty. For a hybrid pattern, each intensity is considered separately when looking for the longest duties.
If the work pattern is a hybrid or a full shift, then normal working days are grouped with full shifts when analyzing length of duty.
Otherwise, normal days are looked at separately and compared to the target for a full shift.
Shortest Off Duty
This is the time from the end of one duty to the start of the next.
% of Duties with Adequate Total Rest
The New Deal requires that on call duties have rest periods equivalent to 50% of the out of hours portion of the duty. For partial shifts this is 25%. DRS interprets “out of hours” as any duty time outside the period 9:00 to 17:00 on weekdays.
75% of duties with a total rest requirement must fulfill the above.
% of Duties with Adequate Out of Hours Rest
The New Deal requires that on call duties have rest periods of at least 6 hours in the period 5pm to 9am on weekdays. If work episodes are not recorded on the diary card, rests cannot be correctly placed in a time period. DRS assumes that all the rest for the day (entered in the "Rest" entry box) is in the required time period.
75% of duties with an out of hours rest requirement must fulfill the above.
% of Duties with Adequate Longest Continuous Rest
For on call and 24 hour partial shifts there is a requirement for a specific continuous rest period. This rest must be between 10:00 pm and 8:00 am. The diary cards are examined for rest in this time span. If work episodes are not recorded on the diary card, long rests cannot be calculated. DRS assumes that all the rest for the day (entered in the "Rest" entry box) is continuous and in the required time period.
75% of duties with a continuous rest requirement must fulfill the above.
% of Duties with Adequate Natural Breaks
The New Deal requires that 75% of duties have adequate natural breaks.
24 Hour Partial Shifts
There are two extra rules for 24 hour partial shifts. Quotes are from HSC 1998/240.
"Doctors should not be on duty for more than four hours following the 16 hour period of out of hours work". DRS interprets this to mean that a 24 hour partial shift should not finish after 13:00.
"The next duty period should not start until at least the beginning of the next normal working day". DRS interprets this to mean that there should be no duty starting on the day following the day on which a 24 hour partial shift starts.
Weekends Worked is 1 in X
DRS regards a weekend to have been worked if there was any duty after 19:00 on the Friday or on the Saturday or Sunday or before 7:00 am on Monday. All recorded weekends are counted and compared to the number of weekends worked.
On Call frequency is 1 in X
This is only calculated if there are duties with "on call" intensity recorded. DRS counts the total number of weekdays recorded and the number of on call weekdays recorded to calculate this ratio.
Criteria R
Criteria R states "Are you resident and carrying out any work after 7:00 pm, or non-resident and doing 4 hours work after 7:00 pm on 50% or more occasions? " DRS examines the diary card work episodes recorded and states if Criteria R is satisfied.
Duty Hours Outside 7:00 am to 7:00 pm Monday to Friday
For work patterns other than on call rotas, the above is used as a measure of anti-social working practices. DRS examines the diary card work episodes recorded and calculates the percentage of work outside these hours.
Average Standard Working Week
The diary cards marked as "normal working day" are totaled, averaged and multiplied by five to give an average standard working week.
EWTD - Eleven Hours Continuous Rest in any 24 Hour Period
DRS checks this by examining the 24 hours following every start of duty. In general, a problem will be indicated if there is not a continuous period of 11 hours off duty in this 24 hours. For non resident work patterns, rest in the duty is counted towards the 11 hours.
If this test fails, DRS will check for the availability of compensatory rest immediately following the 24 hour period. For example, 24 hours on duty followed by 22 hours of rest will be allowed. 22 hours is necessary to allow 11 hours compensatory rest from the previous 24 hours and 11 hours of rest for the current 24 hours. In such a case DRS will not flag a failure but will show a warning.
A duty in excess of 24 hours will always fail this test.
Due to the limited periods that are monitored and the possibility of compensatory rest being outside the monitoring period, the results of this test should only be used as guidance for further investigation.
EWTD - A 35 Hour Continuous Rest in Each 7 Day Period
A two week monitoring period is assumed and each individual doctor is checked. If no 35 hour rest period is found in the first week and no 59 hour rest period is found at any stage, a compliance failure will be logged. Due to the limited periods that are monitored and the possibility of compensatory rest being outside the monitoring period, the results of this test should only be used as guidance for further investigation.
Diary Cards - Banding Calculation