How dramatic.
But it’s also true. Stateside, we’re already dealing with the repercussions of restricting residents’ work to 80 hours per week or less.
The UK is going several steps further, but restricting all doctors to no more than 48-hours of work a week.
First off, there are no studies that suggest restricting work-hours improves patient care. Whatever patient safety gains are made are offset by the greater number of errors that arise from the more frequent patient handoffs between doctors.
Next, it’s going to cost a tremendous amount of money to hire the new staff needed to perform the work left behind as doctors are forced to go home. Already cash-strapped, I don’t see the NHS willing to make the necessary financial commitment to ensure a smooth transition.
This is a disaster the making, and those who call for further work-hour restrictions in the United States should be paying close attention to what’s happening in the UK.
Related posts:
- Do physician assistants need work-hour restrictions too?
- Who will pick up the slack from resident work-hour restrictions?
- How work-hour restrictions harms resident surgeon training
- The 80-hour workweek and surgery residency
- Restricting resident work hours forces doctors to lie, and other unintended consequences of the 80-hour work week
- Restricting resident work hours leads to a shortage of surgeons
- How following hospital quality measures can kill patients
{ 5 comments }
48 hours? have i died and gone to heaven? how much pay cut would i have to take?
This is actually an EU directive, not UK-based. I agree there are significant dangers inherent with limiting the number of hours a doctor can work in a week, but I don’t think they are totally insurmountable or all that much greater than when a doctor is working 30 hours straight, getting a divorce and drinking too much. The training period is much longer than in the States because of this as well, but with 6 weeks of vacation a year AND limiting the hours worked, you’re dealing with a much more sane group of people. But do you honestly think any of the docs in the UK will even come close to 48 hours a week? Best they can do is closer to 60, but there are fully viable ways for them to work many, many more hours at a higher pay rate as needed. Doesn’t do much for saving the NHS any money, but it does lessen the effects you think will be so drastic on patient care.
What I’ve heard happening via word of mouth is this (and this is consequences of the EU worktime directive, not exclusively a UK issue):
1. Hours get cut. Same workload, same staff.
2. You get paid for these official hours. The rest you do unofficially, because there’s work to be done and noone but you to do it.
3. Yay.
Sir –
A differing opinion in the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/13/nhs-health
Please also note that most European countries have a much lower maximum number of hours (35-40 in France) and still manage to deliver high-quality care. It will mean some changes to the system but I think it would be disingenuous to compare the US to the rapidly-changing UK only. The US is, in the developed world, at one extreme of workers’ rights and a more informative comparison can be made by considering a variety of countries.
The UK is one of few EU countries to be upset by this measure. Even then, many junior doctors are happy that the days of 100h on-call are over.
Best wishes,
Nicholas Swetenham
Just one more regulation filled with the best of intentions but ultimately nonsense. NO ONE SHOULD BE TELLING YOU HOW TO WORK OR HOW MANY HOURS YOU CAN WORK! Or, more precisely, the no one in government should have such power. This is clearly an individual decision with all the unique issues that every person (or doctor) must balance. Employers may make demands of their employees – that employee is ‘free’ to accept the conditions or quit.
People who defend this sort of regulation simply have no clue about the benefits of freedom, and so dully, inevitably, without thinking they slowly destroy the freedom that is the only thing capable of creating good, personal, CARING health care. It is very sad when there are so few voices to defend freedom and so many drones pushing to slowly eliminate it.
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