Hospital doctors to strike over work hours

Patients are set to be thrown into the middle of a nationwide industrial relations row after hospital doctors voted for strike action over their “dangerous” working hours.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) confirmed the move will occur within the next three weeks after a ballot of 1,000 of the union’s 2,000 junior doctors found 97% in favour of the controversial step.

The union said junior doctors are being forced to work up to 100 hours a week in hospitals throughout the country, shift-lengths which are in breach of a 13-year-old European Working Time Directive.