Part-Time Training

Registrars are allowed to undertake training part-time. They must work a minimum of three sessions (or 10.5 hours) per week, including teaching and workshop time. Salary is paid on a pro-rata basis.

Registrars in GP Terms 1 and 2 will usually be counted educationally as either half-time or full-time so that their workshop program and term dates stay in synch with other registrars. Workshop time is paid time. The practice subsidy is paid at either half or full rate to subsidise the practice for the appropriate amount of paid educational release.

How does a practice pay registrars for workshop days when they are part-time?

Registrars should be paid for workshop days as it is part of the agreed paid educational release time. Practices are paid a practice subsidy to offset this. The real question is whether the registrar works an extra day in a week when there is a workshop, or does not. This is entirely up to the practice and registrar to negotiate. To give three examples to illustrate this:

a) A registrar normally works Mon, Wed and Fri and is paid for 3 days a week. If there is a workshop on Friday, the registrar still works Mon, Wed and Fri (at the workshop) and is paid for 3 days.

b) A registrar normally works Mon and Wed and is paid for 2 days per week. The practice and registrar agree that the registrar will work an extra day when there is a workshop. If there is a workshop on Friday, the registrar works Mon, Wed and Fri (at the workshop) and is paid for 3 days on that week.

c) A registrar normally works Mon and Wed and is paid for 2 days per week. The practice and registrar agree that the registrar will not work an extra day when there is a workshop. If there is a workshop on Friday, the registrar works Mon and Fri (at the workshop), does not work Wed, and is paid for 2 days.

The other question to consider is whether the workshop is part of the registrar’s normal educational release or an ‘extra’

In a full-time 6 month GP Term 1 a registrar will have 12 days of paid educational release for workshops. If they are educationally half-time the GP Term 1 will be 12 months long and there will be 12 days of paid educational release over the 12 months. Registrars may choose (in negotiation with the practice) to attend most or all of the workshops in the first half of the term so that they are not ‘missing’ workshops. That is fine as long as it is agreeable to the practice – it means a lot of educational release in the first half of the term and none in the second half. However, this gets tricky if the registrar is doing GP Term1 across two different practices eg the first 6 months with practice A and the second six months with practice B. It is unreasonable for practice A to pay for 12 days of educational release and practice B to pay for none. In this case practice A is only expected to pay for 6 days of educational release. If the registrar decides to do all the workshops in the first six months then any days above the six are ‘extra’ and the registrar does them without pay. The registrar will catch this up in the second six months when they will be entitled to the other six days of paid release which they can use for personal study.

For GP Term 2 the situation is exactly the same except the full-time educational release is 9 days over six months and the half-time educational release is 9 days over 12 months or 4.5 days over each six month period.