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It will be impossible to ensure a system which can deliver a reliable service that is adequately staffed and has fully functioning systems. We have a duty to ensure safe and continuing care to our patients at all costs and it will be simply unethical to refuse to work whatever the shortages may be. What we need is an acknowledgement from the medical director and chief executive officer stating the clear nature of the shortage and measures taken to alleviate the problems in an official statement on a daily basis to protect staff and make patients aware. It should be one of their core duties.
Competing interests:
often find myself working with inadequate staffing levels
19 July 2019
sunku guptha
consultant physician
Dept 309, Medicine for Older People, Peterborough city hospital, North West Anglia NHS foundation trust, Peterborough PE3 9GZ
Re: BMA is urged to seek legal advice for doctors on refusing to work because of system failures
Dear Editor
It will be impossible to ensure a system which can deliver a reliable service that is adequately staffed and has fully functioning systems. We have a duty to ensure safe and continuing care to our patients at all costs and it will be simply unethical to refuse to work whatever the shortages may be. What we need is an acknowledgement from the medical director and chief executive officer stating the clear nature of the shortage and measures taken to alleviate the problems in an official statement on a daily basis to protect staff and make patients aware. It should be one of their core duties.
Competing interests: often find myself working with inadequate staffing levels