Health Service Circular 1998/240
This circular expands on and clarifies some of the New Deal standards, in particular on the topic of rest allowances. The following is a summary of the circular.
Full Shifts
At least a 30-minute continuous break after approximately 4 hours continuous duty.
Maximum shift length of 14 hours.
Minimum period off duty between shifts is 8 hours.
Partial Shifts
Natural breaks during 'normal working hours' if no out of hours duty i.e. 9am-17pm/8am-16pm
Otherwise, total rest should equate to one quarter of the out of hours portion of a shift. For a shift from 9:00 to 21:00 (12 hours in total), the following applies - 9:00 to 17:00 with natural breaks, and 17:00 to 21:00 (4 hours total) with one hours rest. A 17:00 to 9:00 shift needs 4 hours rest.
At weekends, all duty is classified as "out of hours", so a 9:00 to 21:00 shift (12 hours in total) needs a total of 3 hours rest.
Frequent short rests are not acceptable, but the rest may occur at any time during the shift.
Maximum shift length - 16 hours.
Minimum period off duty between shifts is 8 hours.
24 hour Partial Shift
6 hours rest in the 24 hours.
4 hours continuous rest between 22:00 - 8:00.
The duty period must not continue for more than 4 hours beyond the out of hours element, i.e. not beyond midday/13:00. Therefore any 24 hours partial shift must start by midday/13:00.
Maximum shift length is 24 hours including handover.
The next day (shift) cannot start until the following day. Effectively this means that a minimum time off between shifts should be 20 hours.
On-call Rota
8 hours total rest in 32 hours.
6 hours total rest in the out of hour’s period.
5 hours continuous rest between 22:00 and 8:00.
Rest must equate one half of the out of hours portion of the shift.
Maximum shift length is 32 hours (weekdays)
At weekends (which are all out of hours)
12 hours rest in the 24 hours
5 hours continuous rest between 22:00 and 8:00
Maximum shift length 56 hours.
Minimum period off duty between shifts is 12 hours.
For all of these targets, the rest requirements must be met during at least three-quarters (75%) of all rostered duty periods.
For Hybrid rotas, the requirements for each respective element must be met, on at least three-quarters of occasions.
Regardless of the contracted hours of duty for individual posts, doctors and dentists in training employed on a full-time basis should not be expected to work for more than an average of 56 hours per week.
