Unrostered Overtime
This refers to any time you were required to work outside of the published roster.
The hospital consciously encourages all JMOs to claim all overtime that they are required to work beyond their rostered shift. The DPET is very keen to here from interns and RMOs who believe that they have been discouraged from claiming unrostered overtime, or who believe that their claim has been inappropriately rejected. One of the functions of a DPET is to advise, and advocate on your behalf.
Clearly, before you can claim any unrostered overtime, you need to be familiar with the details of your roster. For instance, while many shifts at Westmead run from 08:30 to 17:00, most surgical intern and RMO shifts commence at 07:00. Some departments, such as Upper GI Surgery, have a department-specific rotating roster with different shift times on different days. Others, such as Trauma, ASU and ICU have a seven on/seven off roster. If you are uncertain you can ask RSU and will also find your shift times on
Health Roster.
If your timesheet shifts seem to vary from the advice given to you by your department, you should raise this immediately with RSU.
All claims for unrostered overtime should be submitted via UROC, the NSW Health electronic claims system. You can access UROC via an
APP (download from the APP store or Google Play and search for "UROC NSW Health"). Alternatively, it is also visible as part of Stafflink, where you can see 'NSH Health UROC Creator' as an option in the top left menu. You can submit a claim from any computer or personal device, in and outside the hospital. Once submitted, claims will be directed to RSU for management. The advantage of using the electronic system is that you have a permanent record of claims and can track the approval process. In making a claim, you will be asked to select from a menu of approved reasons for unrostered overtime and, where necessary, to provide additional detail - which will often include the MRN of the last patient your were involved with. So don't forget to collect this information.
The current NSW Health
policy has streamlined the process for claiming unrostered overtime by eliminating the need for Head of Department sign-off in the majority of cases and expanding the approved reasons for being able to claim unrostered overtime.
You should be aware that submissions into UROC are not paid automatically - there needs to be a process of review and authorisation which will take at least several days. This means that payment of claims made late in the pay cycle may be delayed until the following pay period. When this happens, your payslip will clearly indicate which pay period the payment refers to.
Callbacks
When you participate in an on-call roster, you may be called back into the hospital. There is a very small payment for being on-call, and each callback is paid at a minimum of four hours of overtime.
For interns and RMOs, the most common form of callback occurs through participation in a sick relief roster. This is when you are on-call in case another JMO is sick and unable to attend a rostered shift. When you are called in for this purpose, it is usually reflected on your timesheet as though you had been rostered to the shift which you have taken over, rather than as a callback. The payment should be the same, and either way,
MUST be paid at overtime rates. If you are aver asked to work when you are on an on call roster and you are not paid as overtime, you should raise this with RSU.
The more common form of callback usually only applies to Advanced Trainees from a small group of disciplines, especially the procedural sub-specialties. Once called back, registrars are required to be signed out before leaving the hospital. Further details including the documentation required are found in the policy PD2019-27, which encompasses both callbacks and unrostered overtime
Like unrostered overtime, claims for callbacks are made via
UROC.
Claims for Remote Clinical Appraisals
This does not impact on Interns and RMOs, but will be of relevance to certain specialty advanced trainees. The hospitals current policy for the administration of claims for payment of callbacks and remote clinical appraisals can be found on the policy database on the hospital Intranet.
The claiming medical officer must be listed on the relevant on-call roster for the period in which they are making a claim for payment of a clinical appraisal undertaken remotely.
Claims for Remote Clinical Appraisals cannot be made in UROC. A manual from needs to be completed and these are available in the RSU and the RMO Common Room.
It is essential for the following sections in the certification section on page 2 of the form to be completed by the Medical Officer:
- The reason for calling an on call medical officer was as follows:
- Clinical advice:
- Clinical advice and advice on admission:
- Advising of an admission:
- The reason why it was not necessary to return to the hospital to undertake the appraisal is as follows:
The claim for payment of a remote clinical appraisal must be approved by the trainee’s department head or their delegate.
Medical officers should submit claims for payment of remote appraisals no later than 4 weeks after these occurred.