Day Release and the European Time Directive

The issue of attendance at day release and the implementation of the European Working Time Directive was discussed at both the Assessors Workshop and by the Postgraduate Training Committee. The introduction of the European Working Time Directive has made rostering within departments more difficult but this does not preclude the need for GP trainees in hospital posts to attend the day release.

The PGTC reaffirmed the agreed minimum attendance at day release is 75%. This criterion is currently framed so that the attendance may be calculated over the entire four years of training but it is at the discretion of the individual steering committees to prescribe that certain portions of their day release requires a specific attendance.

Under the terms of the European Working Time Directive, GP Trainees are paid to attend day release sessions. While it is considered part of the work for payment purposes, time spent at the day release is not counted for the purposes of EWTD calculations.