‘Doctors’ training must count as work’

Ireland could be ordered to employ hundreds more doctors — plunging the health budget into even deeper deficit — following a legal opinion from the European Court of Justice.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) took the Government to the court to force it to bring junior doctors’ working hours within legal limits. Junior doctors can face 32-hour shifts and up to 100 hours a week.

However, the court’s advocate general focused on another issue — the fact that the 20 to 27 hours a month training time for the 4,500 trainee doctors is not counted as work.