EU to take up issue of junior doctors’ hours

THE European Commission is to take up the issue of punishing hours worked by junior hospital doctors with the Government.

Doctors in training should not work more than 56 hours a week under current EU rules, but a report in December, by the Department of Health, found the 4,800 junior doctors regularly exceeding this, working shifts of 36 hours or longer and no hospital was fully complied with the law.

Dublin Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa referred this to the EU commission, whose job is to ensure states implement the laws.