Doctors’ hours cut ‘will hurt patients’

PATIENTS will suffer and waiting lists will increase once junior doctors’ working hours are reduced, a leading surgeon has warned.

Professor Frank Keane, chair of the college committee of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI), said unless consultant numbers were substantially increased to tie in with the introduction of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) in August, patients would suffer.

This, he said, was because a shorter working week would place consultants under pressure to train surgical interns in a shorter timeframe.