10 June 2005
Patient confidentiality is being compromised because a significant group of senior hospital doctors do not have offices, the British Medical Association warned this week.
There are around 12,500 staff and associate specialist (SAS) doctors in the UK, who are no longer in training but are not consultants. The BMA said that although many had a large administrative workload, most did not have an office, meaning that patient notes were often left where visitors and non-clinicians could view them.
At the SAS annual meeting in London this week, the doctors demanded office space urgently. Member Elizabeth Bailey said: 'If you don't have your own office, you have to do your paperwork wherever you can find the room - in the coffee room, on the wards, in corridors.'
PFjun2005
