Swapping Shifts
How to swap shifts
The best way to swap a shift is to find someone who would be able to swap the shift for you by looking at the Master Rota
Sending out a mass "Can anyone swap?!!!" message tends to be unsuccessful.
Think about how your swap can benefit the other person. For example, offer to swap with someone who would then be able to request a longer stretch of days off.
If you swap out of an on-call to take leave, remember that you still need to request leave on CLWrota once the swap is agreed.
Once you've arranged your swap and checked it is even and doesn't break any of the swap rules below including the National Rota Rules:
Email [email protected] cc'ing in the person who you are swapping with
Please make it obvious which shifts you are swapping - a picture of the new shifts using the Master Rota style boxes is really helpful
If you haven't agreed a swap back (i.e. the other person will work your shift but you haven't yet agreed when you'll work their shift) that's fine but it's up to you to arrange the rest of the swap.
Swap Rules
Weekends
Since there are fewer doctors working at the weekend, we try to keep a consistent presence across the weekend. Therefore we ask people to try and swap the whole weekend if possible. If this really isn't possible then we can allow a swap if there will be consistency from another rota line e.g. SpR for SHO swaps or vice versa.
National Rota Rules
These a part of your contract and only under exceptional circumstances will we permit a swap that breaks them. There are rules that were hard fought for in the 2015 junior doctor strike and are designed to make shift work safe for you. Having worked a period before them I strongly suggest you don't break them.
You can find a full list on this page under the Doctors Rota section
Common Errors
If you swap night shifts - you need to swap the OFF and Duty Leave shift afterwards (to ensure you have the required 46hrs off after a night shift)
Uneven swaps - if you want a swap, make sure that both parties end up working the same number of shifts. If the person who wants the swap works additional hours then that's ok but remember that you're essentially working someone else's shift for free!
Swapping with empty gaps
Occasionally we have empty slots of the rota. You can swap with an empty slot as long as:
1. If a swap is into a gap that is ahead of the shift that will become empty, we should have 4-6 weeks notice. This is to get the new vacancy out to locum and to prevent last-minute gaps.
2. If the swap is backwards this needs to be done with at least 2 weeks notice of the new vacant shift. This is because, while nice to have a short-notice gap filled, we need time to put out the new gap and we will have been making contingency plans for any unfilled shifts.
3. Swaps must be like-for-like
a. if you are swapping out of a night, you need to swap into a night
b. if you are swapping out of a weekend shift, you need to swap into a weekend shift
c. swaps that involve off days or duty leave will need to be double checked to ensure (daytime) staffing isn’t compromised by the swap (may need to liaise with Dr Sokhi to check)
4. Any swapped shifts need to swap Duty Leave/ working days inherent to the shift(s)/ rota lines. If someone chooses to split their nights and take a night that belongs in a different rota line, they cannot assume they will accrue Duty Leave. In fact, complicated swaps like that must be run past Dr Sokhi.
5. Juniors making swaps must meet their contractual rest requirements (most trainees = 2016 contract, all fellows = 2012 contract - therefore EWTD). Breach of rest requirements through locum activity is at judgement of trainee and dept, breaching for swaps is not acceptable.
6. If a locum is already booked, a junior can’t swap into that shift.
SHOs swapping with FY2s
From August 2023 we have SHOs and FY2s within the same rota. Since the two groups are on different contracts and there are two FY2s working across 1 SHO slot, it can make swaps difficult. Therefore we ask the following
Swaps can only be done once FY2s have started (e.g. SHOs on 6 month contracts can't swap with the 2nd cohort of FY2s before they start)
Weekday Long days can be swapped like for like (e.g. an SHO swaps with one of the FY2s in the slot) as long as this doesn't compromise minimum staffing levels
For Nights and weekends:
1. Look for a swap within your group (i.e. SHO or FY2)
2. Swap both FY2 for one SHO
3. If only one FY2 is swapping, this needs to be authorised by the consultant on that shift (look on CLWrota to check this)
These rules may be subject to change over the course of a rota. However, we need to ensure all members of the team have safe working conditions - this means not leaving the FY2s without adequate support but also considering that some of the registrars might be working their first registrar job and/or first ICU job as a registrar.
Rota Master - how to arrange a swap
This section is here to cover situations where the rota lead is away but also gives you an idea of the work Rota Masters have to do:
Meets requirements or juniors have no alternatives and understand the implications
Adjust the Master rota
Found on Google Drive here
Find the corresponding slots, add a colon then the new shift e.g. D --> D:LD
This will automatically change the colour to indicate a swap
You can right click and add comments, but this isn't normally needed
Update CLWrota
You will need to login with your Rota Master login
The best view to change this is the 'Oncalls' tab and select 'By rota'
Select ICU SHO / SPR on call from the location and the corresponding group, date and number of weeks to show
Click edit then click to remove the person swapping out of the shift.
To add someone in their place, first select the shift, assign as 'standard' then click their name on the relevant date
If the person you are adding isn't listed then CLWrota is blocking them due to another shift. You can use the Multiweek tab 'by person' to see any shifts or 'blocked' shifts that might be interfering. Click on the shifts to remove them +/- add a reason. Then the person should be selectable in the On call view.
Email confirmation of the swap to the junior doctors
Once sent, the email can be archived (I suggest not deleting them in case of any issues)