Doctor fatigue puts patient safety at risk

Doctors working 24-hour shifts face exhaustion and fatigue, which can compromise their ability to provide care. One medic working at the coalface says it is time to end the culture of these dangerous round-the-clock shifts, writes Dr Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne

Doctors are ordinary people with ordinary limits. It is time for us to design systems of work that reflect these limits rather than ignore them. File picture

I looked at the clock: an hour to go until handover. Only the baby-checks left. I finished my notes for the last admission of the night  — a two-year-old girl with a chest infection — and headed to the maternity ward. The ward manager greeted me cheerfully:

“Hiya! We’ve six babas for you to see this morning.”