- Fifteen things, and it names the one that failed rather than just saying "non-compliant": your average week, your hours in any 168, shift length, consecutive long shifts and the rest owed after them, late finishes, consecutive nights and the rest after those, consecutive shifts, weekend frequency, rest between shifts, and four separate on-call rules. It also checks your rota against the work schedule you were given, which is the comparison most people never make.
- From the 2016 terms and conditions, the contract itself rather than a summary of it, and every limit cites the paragraph it comes from. Last checked against the document on 7 September 2026.
- Your post, its dates, and your rota. You paint the shifts onto a calendar rather than typing hours into a box, because the limits are about the pattern and not the total: four nights in a row and four nights spread over a month are the same number of hours and only one of them is a problem. If your rota repeats, you paint one cycle.
- No, but it is worth having. Without it you still get every safe working check. With it you also get the comparison against what you were told you would work, which is the one that catches a rota that is legal and still not the job you agreed to.
- Yes, and the limits change with you: your average is capped at 40 hours a week rather than 48, and the pay is worked out on your actual percentage. The pattern limits, 13 hours a shift, 11 hours of rest between them, 4 nights in a row, 72 hours in any 168, apply to everyone whatever their percentage.
- Resident doctors in England on the 2016 contract. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run on different contracts with different limits, so the check would give you a confident answer against the wrong rules. The pay calculator and the pay scales do cover all four nations.
- Both can be describing different things. A trust checks the rota template it published; this checks the shifts you paint, which is what actually happened. It also flags things that are lawful only with your agreement, so a rota you never agreed to is a breach and the same rota you did agree to is not, and only you know which. Every result names its paragraph, so you can take the document to the conversation rather than an opinion. Ask your employer to show you their own calculation: putting the two side by side is usually what finds the difference, and it opens a conversation rather than an argument. If you still disagree after that, the BMA can look at it with you.
- No. It is a reading of the rota you painted against the published contract, and it is only as right as what you entered. It is built to give you something specific to raise: the rule, the paragraph and the shifts that broke it. What it is not is a legal opinion or a substitute for your guardian of safe working, your rota coordinator or the BMA. A clean result is not proof either: it says nothing here broke the rules as you entered them, not that your employer has nothing to answer for. Either way, ask them to walk you through their own working, and take it to the BMA if you are not satisfied with what you hear.
