No time to train the surgeons: Royal College of Surgeons of England responds

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7448.1133

BMJ 2004;328:1133 (8 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7448.1133

Letter

No time to train the surgeons

Royal College of Surgeons of England responds

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The Royal College of Surgeons of England agreeswith Chikwe et al that surgical training must be a priority.¹The specialty is facing serious challenges both in deliveringservices and in training because of the reduction in juniordoctors' hours of work. However, some of the enforced changesare to be welcomed: no one can truly regret that trainees areno longer expected to work a total of over 30 000 hours, orover 85 hours a week. Furthermore, the impetus for the reformof senior house officer training was the general recognitionthat training was poor and needed a radical overhaul, especiallyin surgery.

To compare hours worked in the past with the other figures inthe editorial relating to hours of daytime service and trainingin a 48 hour week can be confusing when we are faced with a56 hour week. We need to focus . . . [Full text of this article]

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Peter J Morris, president

Royal College of Surgeons of England, London WC2A 3PN president@rcseng.ac.uk