Out-of-hours rota for UK vet practices: the method in 4 steps.

The duty behind the rota.

The RCVS supporting guidance asks every vet in practice to take steps to provide 24-hour emergency first aid and pain relief. You don’t have to be on duty yourself at all times: shared rotas or a dedicated emergency clinic are accepted, as long as clients are told how to reach help.

Step 1: the needs for each slot.

For every night, weekend and bank holiday: how many vets, how many vet nurses, on site or on call. A night of emergency cover with inpatients doesn’t ask for the same thing as on-call from home. Write the needs down once, before putting a name anywhere.

Step 2: the rest that follows.

An on-site duty is working time: afterwards, 11 consecutive hours’ rest in every 24 (regulation 10 of the Working Time Regulations 1998). Every week, 24 hours in every 7 days, or 48 hours in every 14 (regulation 11). Practice often goes further, and that is what makes the rota sustainable:

• a full day off after every on-site night;
• the Monday off after an on-call weekend;
• never two on-call weekends in a row, when staffing allows.

Step 3: fairness over time.

Count each person’s on-call over twelve months, not one: nights, Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays separately. This month’s share is worked out among those who can do on-call this month, with a tolerance band. The full method, with a worked example, is in our guide to fair night on-call.

Step 4: on-call and days together.

Adding on-call after the day rota means breaking rest that was already planned: the person on call Thursday night was down for Friday morning. On-call and days are decided at the same moment, with the same constraints in view.

The version with a tool.

All of this is what an optimisation engine does in a few seconds: it picks on-call together with the days, applies the rest days you have set as hard rules and measures fairness per person, counter by counter. That is what Djed does: on-call, out-of-hours, weekends, vets and vet nurses, in the same month. These are day-based rules: the 11 hours and the weekly rest, counted in hours, Djed doesn’t check, and avoiding two on-call weekends in a row is a goal for the engine, not a guarantee. Duties you pin by hand are kept and the engine builds the rest. The rotation is described on the on-call page; the rules, in our working time guide.

Sources and date checked.

• RCVS, supporting guidance, chapter 3: 24-hour emergency first aid and pain relief.
• Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833), regulations 4 to 12. Northern Ireland has its own regulations, the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, with the same limits.

Texts checked on 5 October 2026. This guide is not legal advice: for your own situation, speak to your HR or employment adviser.