User:Matt641/On Call (medicine)

In medicine, being on call refers to being available for their designated role at short notice. Doctors on call in a hospital typically carry a pager/bleep or a hospital issued mobile phone, allowing them to be contacted when required.

United Kingdom
On call responsibilities within the NHS vary widely between hospitals and are not standardised across trusts. However, they can be broadly categorised by commonly required roles within a hospital. Doctors on call are usually infrequently required during normal working hours unless working as part of an emergency team, given that a patient's needs can be managed by their usual team of doctors.

House Officer (F1/F2)- During the day, cardiac arrest/medical emergency team. Out of hours, typically assigned to the wards completing administrative tasks not done during the day; completing routine clinical tasks such as cannulation and catheterisation; seeing acutely unwell patients.

Senior House Officer (F2-ST3) - During the day, cardiac arrest/medical emergency team. Out of hours, clerking new admissions to the acute medical/surgical unit or in A&E; seeing acutely unwell patients.

Registrar (ST4-8) - During the day, available to advise other teams in their speciality; leading the cardiac arrest/medical emergency team. Out of hours they are usually the most senior doctors on site, a hospital will typically have at least one (or more depending on the size of the service) registrar in hospital out of hours for each of their acute specialities e.g medical registrar (Med Reg), surgical registrar, paediatric registrar etc.

Consultant - Activities depend on speciality but typically not on site (exceptions such as A&E, trauma and related specialities). Responsible for all patient care taking place during their on-call period.