Cut in doctors’ hours ‘may never happen’
Dr Mark Murphy said despite repeated attempts to tackle the situation, frontline doctors are still working up to 100 hours a week — including 36-hour shifts — with few or no breaks.
In response to the latest European Commission (EC) order last September to lessen the workload due to dangers posed to staff and public, the department finally released plans this week to reduce hours over the next three years. This was more than a month after the EC response deadline.
However, Dr Murphy, the Irish Medical Organisation’s non-consultant hospital doctor (NCHD) chairman, said junior doctors feared the promises would fall by the wayside like agreements as far back as 1997. He said this was because of the planned 3,200 retirements from the system next month; lack of provision for increasing junior doctor numbers in the HSE’s service plan and a 50% cut in agency worker levels.
As a result, Dr Murphy said junior doctors’ hours were likely to either stay the same or increase as they continued to treat patients with less staff support, increasing the risk of exhausted doctors making mistakes, suffering mental health issues or emigrating.
“I do not accept that a government or a department cannot have responsibility when this problem has been flagged for 15 years.
“There are doctors who will be working 48 hours over this weekend, 80 hours -plus this week. Services are running due to the goodwill of NCHDs,” he said.
“A whole generation of NCHDs have been promised changes, then those promises have fallen by the wayside.”
The European working time directive requires at least one 15-minute break every four-and-a-half hours; 11 hours’ rest every 24 hours and a 35-hour rest period at least once a week.
The department said all hospitals will adhere to the rules, which were meant to be implemented in August 2004, within three years.
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