On-call duties in chemical pathology: a survey of junior medical staff in the UK.

To ascertain the extent of variation in out-of-hours duties among trainees in chemical pathology in the UK questionnaires were sent to 81 junior medical staff in 1992. Replies were received from 63 (78%). Although most had participated in an advisory rota, only 41 (65%) had participated in an analytical rota. Nine (14%) had participated in specialist analytical rotas, while 13 (21%) had experience of multidisciplinary rotas and only eight (13%) had experience of rotas involving clinical responsibility. Only 10 (16%) regularly reviewed their work on call with their senior medical staff. There was no single method of requesting tests out of hours in the trainees' laboratories and there was also considerable variation with respect to the tests available out of hours. It is concluded that sufficient variation exists in the on-call experience gained by junior medical staff in chemical pathology to raise concern about the quality of training in out-of-hours work.