Implementation of On-Call Duty for family practice regarding to “Right to Rest” of primary care physicians

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explicate the legislation about on-call duty requirement of family physicians within the context of working time and right to rest. For the protection of health as the basic compenent of right to live, rest is an important need for workers. Rest only can be provided by the way of limiting working time of employees. “Right to rest” is regulated by international and national legal rules as a result of the struggle for the limitation of working time. Legal requirement of on call duty for family physicians is evaluated in the light of regulations about maximum daily and weekly working hours regarding to the effects on right to rest. European Court of Justice decisions interpreting European Work Time Directive 2003/88/EC state that all the time period in which the doctors are ready for duty in health institution will be counted as a part of weekly working time. Long working times affect negatively workers’ health and cause them to concern about malpractice as determined through researches comparatively in different countries. The critics and efforts still go on for the regulation of working hours, keeping the total number below the maximum weekly hours in health service compatible with European Working Time Directive and European Court of Justice decisions in European Countries. But however in Turkey, weekly working time of family physicians were determined as minimum 40 hours and for on-call duty as maximum 30 hours, which means that weekly working time will possibly be at least 70 hours. In this study by the review of theoretical sources, it is concluded that the implementation of regulation about on-call duty will violate the right to rest of family physicians in Turkey.