Published 5 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4569
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4569

Editor's Choice

Crunch time for doctors’ hours

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

Concern about the European Working Time Directive continues to run high, and its effects on patient care and specialist training remain hotly disputed. Fewer hours a week and fewer years in training presage a cohort of less experienced new consultants. A shortage of doctors in the UK means juniors doing unpaid or additional locum work to fill rotas and having to lie about their hours (http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/view-article.html?id=20000485). Shift systems, loss of the team structure, and poor handover are also reported to be damaging morale.

The strongest protests come from the surgeons, who are especially vulnerable to the effects of reduced hands-on experience. So we asked a former member of our editorial advisory board, Gretchen Purcell Jackson, herself a paediatric surgeon in Nashville, to tell us how long it takes to train a surgeon. She and John Tarpley (doi:10.1136/bmj.b4260) cite evidence suggesting that the 80 hour week imposed . . . [Full text of this article]

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