06 August 2004
Pressure mounted on the government and NHS trusts this week as the British Medical Association claimed junior doctors were not alone in working longer hours than the limit set in the European Working Time Directive.
The directive became applicable to junior doctors on August 1, introducing a 58-hour maximum working week, which is due to fall to 48 hours in 2009.
Though many trusts have complied, up to one in six may not have done so. The BMA is targeting six trusts, which it has yet to name, where it may intervene. The BMA said it is monitoring the situation and plans to survey junior doctors' hours in the autumn.
The association, however, added this week that some of the affected doctors' more senior colleagues were also working above the directive's ceiling of 48 hours a week.
Staff and associate specialist (SAS) doctors – 12,500 medics who have finished training but have been unable or unwilling to take a consultant post – work an average 73-hour week, according to a BMA survey.
Half of the 2,500 doctors surveyed said their morale was low and one in five was considering retirement in the next five years.
SAS leader Mohib Khan said he was concerned about patient care if morale continued to fall. 'It is important that trusts are not allowed to use staff and associate specialist doctors as the easy way of dealing with changes to junior doctors' hours. Patients do not want to be treated by tired, demoralised, overworked doctors, whatever their grade,' he added.
Each time a hospital breaches the directive for an individual doctor it will be liable to fines of up to £5,000 from the Health and Safety Executive. Doctors may also choose to take their trust to an employment tribunal.
Simon Eccles, chair of the BMA's junior doctors' committee, urged hospitals to take the new legislation seriously. 'Where the directive is flouted, the BMA will provide doctors with information, advice and, where appropriate, legal support,' he said.
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