What is the on-call rota?
What is the on-call rota?
Our on-call rota supports us to respond rapidly to a humanitarian crisis, particularly in a surge scenario where a large team will need to be deployed quickly. It is critical to our ability to manage and coordinate the availability of our Register members.
The on-call rota is split into two month periods across the year, with six periods in an entire year.
When on-call, you should be ready to join a response within 24 – 48 hours if called upon. We expect Register members to complete all onboarding requirements before starting on-call.
How do I join the on-call rota?
We approach the UK-Med Register twice a year via email to ask for details of your availability. You will be asked to complete a short questionnaire to provide this information.
Once the questionnaire is closed, the team will allocate members to the rota based on the mixture of availability given. All respondents are emailed to confirm their allocation, even if they are not allocated.
You may be invited be on-call for multiple periods if you indicate that you are able to do so.
Am I guaranteed to deploy if I am on-call?
There is no guarantee of deploying whilst you are on-call.
As we are a response organisation, we cannot predict when our support will be requested or the kind of support that will be needed.
We review members who are on-call early when building a response team with the assumption that members who are on-call will be the most readily available.
Do I need to go on-call to join a response?
We staff our responses through a variety of routes, including drawing from the on-call rota and the wider UK-Med Register, and recruiting directly into our responses. This enables us to scale up our responses rapidly and flexibly in the face of a changing humanitarian situation.
However, members who are on-call will be ready to deploy rapidly and this readiness is taken into account when building our response teams.
Additionally, the on-call rota does not include all roles represented within the UK-Med Register or our responses.
Do I need to join the on-call rota to stay on the UK-Med Register?
If you need to be temporarily released from a UK NHS employer to join a response, you must provide availability for at least 1 full on-call period each year. This facilitates discussions with your employer ahead of any potential response to enable rapid deployment.
Other UK-Med Register members can also opt-in to the rota if they would prefer to organise their participation in this way, but this is not a requirement.
Will I be paid by UK-Med whilst I am on-call?
There is no salary or stipend for being on-call. You should continue to attend to your usual employment whilst on-call.
