Principles of Rostering Consultants

1. Background

1.1 At a high level effective medical rosters ensure the right people with the right skills are
working at the right place. For the health services matching working patterns to patterns
of patient presentation and clinical needs means having more senior decision-makers on
site for a greater part of the day and the week.

1.2 Rostering is a crucial element to ensure an environment that provides high-quality and
safe patient care as well as ensuring staff members’ health and wellbeing is monitored
through increased visibility of safe working hours. The Employer supports a collaborative
approach to the development of rosters.

1.3 These principles will be reviewed from time to time and may be amended by the HSE after
consultation with the consultants’ representative bodies.

2. Fair rostering principles

2.1 As an employer we want all of our staff members to have a good work experience.
Whether the daily, weekly or monthly rota is seen as satisfactory or onerous influences
the recruitment and retention of consultants. Whether work commitments may be seen as
interfering with social life, personal development and hobbies, outings with friends and
sports, family life is significant. Providing sufficient notice and flexibility is key to the
successful rota and our shared goal of attracting staff to these roles.

2.2 Having more medical staff on site over a longer number of hours each day will replace
some of the on-call duties undertaken by consultants heretofore.

2.3 The main rationale for the proposed changes in medical rosters is a positive development
for the delivery of a more effective health service and safer/ better quality patient care and
decision-making. It is also acknowledged that the introduction of new rostering patterns
will support more flexible working patterns for consultants.

HOW TO DEVELOP FAIR ROSTERS

3. General principles

3.1 Work scheduling, including core working hours, any on-call commitments and/or
additional scheduled commitments, will aim to achieve equitable distribution of schedules
so far as is reasonably practicable. This will include a reasonable and fair distribution of
work at weekends, on public holidays and in late evenings.

3.2 Rosters will be designed to ensure that there are sufficient and appropriately skilled staff
rostered to work, and other resources are available, in order to provide appropriate high-
quality patient care and to meet anticipated service demands within the context of a six-
day service delivery to patients.

3.3 Consultants who are working under new patterns will be providing care and will also be
decision makers.

1
3.4 Rosters will be compliant with the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, health and
safety legislation, regulatory and other requirements.

3.5 Rostering processes should ensure that consultants who are employed on the basis of
the Public-only consultants’ contract 2023 are rostered fairly when considered in relation
to colleagues who are employed on the basis of previous template contracts. Rostering
processes should also ensure that rosters are developed in a practical way.

3.6 Rosters will make appropriate provision for adequate personal Continuing Medical
Education / Continuing Professional Development and medical training of medical
students and non-consultant hospital doctors, multidisciplinary team meetings,
committees etc. for those working new work patterns.

3.7 Rosters will incorporate clinical handover by design.

3.8 Roster planning should have appropriate governance structures in place to oversee roster
planning, creation, approval, monitoring and reporting on rosters.

3.9 Rostering practices should be based on cooperation in order to promote fairness in

3.10 Rostering practices should ensure that rostered hours and on-call commitments are
aligned.

4. Specific employer commitments

4.1 Except in urgent and emergency circumstances, it is the intention that rosters will be
scheduled for at least a 12 month period. Should rosters need to be changed, a minimum
notice period of three months will apply.

4.2 In order to maximise capacity, the health service will move towards a six day working
week as resources allow as set out in paragraph 3.2 above. This move will be incremental
and its implementation will be in the context of the recruitment of a sufficient number of
consultants on the 2023 contract.

4.3 To facilitate this innovation consultants will be rostered on Saturdays as part of their 37
hour week. Rosters involving Saturday working will be implemented in the context of (a)
the signing of the 2023 contract by a sufficient number of consultants and (b) the putting
in place of ancillary services and staffing to support these new work arrangements.

4.4 The HSE will promote a family-friendly and supportive workplace. Saturday rostering will
be kept to a minimum insofar as that is practical, having regard to patient need and the
need to increase the number of services that are provided on Saturdays.

4.5 Consultants will continue to provide on-call cover outside of (a) their core weekly working
hours and (b) any required additional hours. The parties expect that having more medical
staff on site over a longer number of hours each day will replace some of the on-call duties
undertaken by consultants.

4.6 In exceptional circumstances, further levels of Saturday working (for example to address
waiting lists) may be requested by the Employer. Such further levels of Saturday working
(provided they take place outside of core weekly working hours, noting that core weekly
working hours can include Saturday working) will be paid on the basis of overtime

2
 payments. Any payment in respect of overtime will be subject to the conditions provided
for in the 2023 contract.

4.7 There will be at least two consecutive days each week on which the Employee is not
rostered to work.

4.8 Employees will not be rostered for split shifts.

4.9 Development of detailed rosters are complex and dependent on many factors including
the type of hospitals and number of available consultants.

4.10 However, the Employer recognises the need to provide as much detail as possible on the
number of rostered Saturdays to job applicants. The Employer will include the number of
proposed indicative rostered Saturdays in the Job Description for year 1. At the time of
signing the contract the Employer will outline the number of rostered Saturdays and details
regarding evenings and on-call commitments that the employee will be reasonably
expected to undertake in the job plan. This will be subject to review on an annual basis.

4.11 Current contract holders will have a right to receive an indicative rostering plan in advance
of a 2023 contract being implemented.

4.12 The roster will reflect that consultants will spend 20-25% of their time in non-clinical duties.

5. Voluntary overtime/On-Call commitments

5.1 Consultants who voluntarily work overtime from 10-midnight Monday to Friday; or 6pm-
midnight on Saturdays will have this time taken into account and recognised when rosters
are being scheduled by local managers. On-call commitments will also be taken into
account and recognised in the scheduling of rosters by local managers.

6. Review mechanisms

6.1 Rostering arrangements will be reviewed annually as part of the employee’s annual
performance review process.

6.2 Upon the appointment of additional doctors on the 2023 contract, rosters must be
reviewed in line with these principles.

6.3 Complaints about unfair or inappropriate rostering must be considered grounds to raise a
grievance locally with the Clinical Director / Executive Clinical Director in line with the
grievance procedure. The consultant may use the principles to advance a grievance under
these principles.

6.4 The operation of these rostering arrangements will be reviewed by the Parties to the
agreement commencing by the end of June 2026 and this review will be completed by
end 2026.