Jun 16 2005
Commenting on an editorial in Friday’s British Medical Journal warning that shift systems for junior doctors may affect patient safety, Mr Simon Eccles, chairman of the BMA’s Junior Doctors’ Committee, says today (Friday 17 June, 2005):
“Working long night shifts for a week at a time can have a detrimental effect on junior doctors’ performance and decision-making, and on patient safety. We would support many of the solutions proposed here, but we would also urge trusts to stop removing doctors’ on-call accommodation. Having somewhere to relax on a long shift means you are better rested when you see patients.
“The problem is not necessarily the Working Time Directive itself, but the way hospitals have responded to it. With the same workload, and less time in which to do it, some trusts have introduced working patterns made up of serial night shifts.
“For many junior doctors, this has meant more intense and antisocial rotas, less sleep, and a lower quality of training. But moving everyone onto shifts isn’t the only way to deal with the problems thrown up by the working time directive. In trusts where work is organised more efficiently – for example by cutting junior doctors’ administrative workload and introducing a more team-based approach – patient safety has improved.”