Working Time Regulations - Implications for the NHS Annie Ingram

What the Regulations say Why it is important Potential Impacts

Working Time Legislation How much do you know?

Working Time Regulations, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003?…? European Directives 93/104/EC2000/34/EC European Communities Act 1972 Statutory Instrument

The ‘1998’ Regulations 48 hrs 11hrsDailyRest 24hrsWeeklyRest HealthAssessments 8 hrs Nightduty 4 weeks A/L RestBreaks RiskAssessment Transfer to days SpecialHazards

Exclusions Collective Agreement Continuity of care Shift Systems Unmeasured Working Time Individual Opt-out

2003 Regulations Include Junior doctors for the 1 st time 58 hours 1 August 2004 – 31 July hours 1 August 2007 – 31 July hours thereafter Reference period – 26 weeks All other provisions apply! –Daily rest, weekly rest, rest breaks, annual leave, Night worker regulations….

Is the NHS working time Compliant?

Temple concluded: “ The medical workforce in Scotland is under pressure. Service demand is rising and will continue to rise; the capacity to respond is already limited and will be further restricted as the Working Time Directive is applied across the medical workforce and as practitioners seek and expect less demanding hours of work.”p3

Can you ignore it? Loss of opt-out HSE enforcement SIMAP ‘Selby’ precedent 2003 Regulations Amicus case Non compliant consultants Juniors compliance  workload  standards  waiting times  throughput Role migration

Proposed changes in Europe… Definitions of Working time and rest periods remain but augmented by ‘on-call time’ and ‘inactive time’ Reference periods could be extended to 1 year – no derogations Compensatory rest to taken within a max of 72 hours – no derogations Individual opt-out more stringent, maximum to apply and register must be kept Opt-out can be agreed by collective agreement

So what does this mean for your service