have repeatedly drawn attention to this looming medical crisis,
most recently in "NHS managers (and the EU) order bugs to work 48
hour weeks" 1/2/09 and ""Untrained surgeons coming your way!"
23/1/09" and "EU wrecking NHS - DON'T GET ILL!" of 18/1/09 , so
it's been known for some time.
Now it seems that the medical profession has woken up and, rightly,
is screaming its collective head off a bit late in the day.
Read it again then here, but I have to ask myself why seemingly
intelligent people take no notice of warnings and assume they are
false alarms. This applies to many things. So many people still
don't seem to realise that the great slump is not in full swing yet,
and is, in fact, just starting. I used to use a second signature
- 'Cassandra' - because she always predicted disaster but nobody took
any notice of her!
I spent several hours yesterday on a total review of the economic
prospects including a whole morning in the City and then an
uninterrupted stint of 5 hours on the computer to edit all the facts
and compile my report. I've had two very welcome messages of
appreciation and one interesting enquiry.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx cs
========================
TELEGRAPH 12.3.09
EU ruling will delay operations on NHS
Patients face a significant increase in waiting times for operations
because "insane" European rules mean doctors' hours will be cut so
much they will not be able to cope, surgeons said.
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
The majority of NHS patients are treated within the target of 18
weeks from seeing their GP, but this will be reversed if junior
doctors limit their working hours to 48 per week, down from 56.
The extension of the European Working Time Directive would result in
the loss of thousands of doctor shifts, John Black, President of the
Royal College of Surgeons, said. As a result, patients could have to
wait months for routine operations as surgeons prioritised emergencies.
The Royal College of Surgeons also said trainee surgeons should work
a 65-hour week in order to produce safe, properly-trained doctors and
cover the workload. Mr Black said: "If the 48-hour limit is enforced,
surgeons will have to make a hard choice between caring for emergency
cases and dealing with elective cases as there will not be the time
available to do both.
"Surgeons will put patient safety first and focus on looking after
emergency patients. All the progress on reducing waiting lists will
go out of the window. Forty eight hours for surgeons is currently
insane if we want to maintain surgery in the NHS," he said.
Doctors said that by cutting doctors' hours, an average hospital
trust outside London would lose the equivalent of three trainee
surgeons. Other specialities such as paediatrics, trauma, and
intensive care were also likely to be affected. The Department of
Health is understood to be considering an increase in the time it
takes to qualify as a consultant surgeon, from seven years to eight
or nine, so doctors can gain enough experience and comply with the
reduced hours.
Vanessa Bourne, of the Patients Association, said: "How can this be
happening in a supposedly patient-centred service? Access to high-
quality, safe care is the paramount requisite for patient and
clinician alike and this muddle needs sorting out before patients are
put at risk." [A bit late in the day! -cs]
The regulations come into force on Aug 1, when hospital trusts will
be trying to cope with organising the new intake of junior doctors.
Remedy UK, the junior doctors' pressure group, said limiting juniors
to a 48-hour week was the equivalent of losing one working day per
doctor per week, or up to 70,000 doctor days per week.
Dr Matt Jameson Evans, co-founder of Remedy UK, said: "Just imagine
the impact of a blanket reduction in doctors' hours by one full day a
week. A creaking system will collapse. And yet most doctors want the
freedom to choose to opt-out of 48 hours.
"We're begging for some common sense - an official endorsement by
government of the individual opt-out for trainee doctors would go a
long way." [Britain tried to stop this in the EU parliament but they
weren't listening so it's now the law! -cs]
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: "NHS staff have
been absolutely clear that if the 48-hour working week is imposed it
will leave many junior doctors with insufficient experience. It will
also threaten the care that patients receive because there will not
be the same continuity of care and because smaller surgical teams
will have to be shut down."
The Department of Health wants to delay [tinkering - however much it
\s delayed it's dangerous -cs] the introduction of a 48-hour week for
some specialities and is expecting an answer from the European
Commission by the end of May.
However, this would only mean some doctors could remain on 56 hours
until 2012.
A spokesman said: "Most UK doctors in training already comply with
the Working Time Directive, and the overwhelming majority will do so
by Aug 1.
"However, we have notified the commission that we intend to operate a
derogation for a small number of services involved in delivering
urgent care." [Utterly useless., What must be rescinded is the
daft ruling that a doctor sleeping or watching TV in his room or
having a meal is "working! if he's 'on call' -vs]
The Working Time Directive is already in force in most areas of
business, limiting the working week to 48 hours and setting minimum
rest periods
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