Sir, – Thank you for highlighting the plight of junior doctors (Joanne Hunt, HEALTHplus, August 7th). Eighty one thousand serious incidents were reported in Irish hospitals in 2011. It does not take a superior intellect to understand the reasons for such incidents when doctors have to work from morning through the night until the next evening without rest or sleep.
These working conditions are inhumane and in breach of the European Working Time Directive which has been accepted by this country, but in theory only.
It puzzles me as to why our Government is so worried about penalties from the EU for turf-cutting when the European Working Time Directive is being glaringly breached and ignored. Turf-cutting is not putting patients’ and doctors’ lives at risk, but it is much easier to place a blanket ban on such an activity than to organise a health service with adequate numbers of doctors working the same hours as every other worker in this State.
Historically, junior doctors have always been mistreated in the workplace. In 1973 young doctors from all over the country organised a protest and arrived en masse in Dublin to seek redress. As I recall, the working week was reduced from 106 hours to 90 hours! Some years later a 70-hour week was instituted, in theory. It is distressing for doctors to have to accept the whimsical rules which local managers are now applying to overtime payments, and it is even sadder to note that the doctors do not have the time nor the energy to fight their corner. They are being abused as an easy target because of the ever-decreasing funds and the continuing wasteful mismanagement in the HSE.
Recently I spoke to a young doctor in a busy hospital who commenced work that day at 8.30am and was having her first break at 11.10pm as she took a call from me. The only food available to her was a bowl of cereal. She was on duty for the rest of the night and the following day and was expected to work more than 100 hours that week.
Would any other group of workers tolerate such grinding physical and mental abuse? I think not.
Your HEALTHplus article posed a question regarding the necessity of doctors being available for such extended periods. As a former clinical director I can assure your readers that all hospitals depend utterly on the availability and goodwill of junior doctors. Should they all leave their posts for only one hour in any given day there is no doubt that the hospital systems would implode and all procedures would come to a halt.
It appears to me that it is time to board the hired coaches and travel to the capital once again, as happened in 1973. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The headline “Are junior doctors’ hours putting patients at risk?” (HEALTHplus, August 7th) somehow implicates these young professionals in causing potential injury to a patient? Surely a more accurate headline would read: “Are HSE management practices putting patients at risk?”
This is an old story and solutions have never been satisfactory. Young doctors however, are voting with their feet, gaining work abroad – more now than ever. Their reports home confirm that it is possible to have an effective health system and dignified conditions for all. Perhaps it is time to engage this Diaspora in discussions with the HSE to enlighten their management thinking? — Yours, etc,