An investigation found that nine out of 11 Scottish health
boards expected their junior staff to work for as many as 12 days straight. Junior
doctors in Scottish hospitals are working more than 100 hours before they get a
day off. Figures obtained by the Glasgow Herald under Freedom of Information
laws show that nine out of 11 of the main Scottish health boards were still
asking junior doctors to work more than 12 days in a row.
An investigation into the 2011 death of a 23-year-old junior
doctor killed in a car crash, Lauren Connelly, found she had been working long
hours at the Inverclyde Royal hospital which may have contributed to her death.
Her father revealed in the weeks leading up to her death that she had covered
long hours - including one stretch where she worked 107 hours in 12 days. Since
his daughter’s death, Mr Connelly has been campaigning for health boards to
properly enforce the European Working Time Directive which guarantees employees
cannot be forced to work more than 48 hours a week. The health authority which
employed Dr Connelly, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, was said by the newspaper to
be one of the worst offenders, asking its doctors to work 114 hours at work
between days off.
It comes as junior doctors across the UK are preparing to
strike over plans to cut their overtime pay by up to 30 per cent.
Dr Kitty Mohan, co-chair of the BMA’s Junior Doctors
Committee, told The Independent that the doctors felt "palpable anger and
frustration" over the plans.
Dr Clifford Mann, president of the Royal College of
Emergency Medicine said the proposed changes had implications for “the future
of medicine and patient care as a whole”.
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