BMA claims third of junior doctors face 'illegal' rotas of over 56 hours

One third of junior doctors are still required to work "illegal" hospital rotas of more than 56 hours a week, the British Medical Association said yesterday.

The doctors' trade union said patient care was jeopardised because some hospital trusts were failing to comply with the maximum working hours for junior doctors.

Almost 5,000 newly-qualified doctors have just begun their first jobs as house officers in hospitals after completing their studies at medical school.

Dr Trevor Pickersgill, the BMA's junior doctors' leader, said one in three could expect to work excessive hours because of the continuing shortage of consultants and senior medical staff.

He said: "The current estimate is that about 35 per cent of junior doctors are working more than 56 hours a week. That is potentially unsafe for patients and potentially unsafe for doctors who are going sleep-deprived and driving to and from hospitals."

The Government has been trying since 1991 to introduce better working conditions for junior doctors, who in the past could be expected to work more than 100 hours a week.

But progress towards implementing a 56-hour maximum has been slow, and in 2000, ministers announced that trusts would be penalised for breaking the limit.

Trusts now have to pay junior doctors higher salaries if they work excess hours as part of a move to bring them into line with a European limit of 48 hours by 2009.

To overcome an acute shortage of hospital doctors, the Government has promised to recruit 15,000 extra consultants and GPs by 2008.

But Dr Pickersgill said hospitals still had to rely on junior doctors to provide the vast majority of medical care at night and at weekends, when most patients admitted were emergency cases.

He said: "Although working hours are slowly coming down, the pace of hospital life has intensified, with more acutely ill patients being treated and shorter stays in hospital."

Junior doctors – known professionally as pre-registration house officers – work for one year before earning their full registration with the General Medical Council. They become senior house officers for three or four years before training as GPs or consultants.

The Department of Health said yesterday that a national monitoring exercise, carried out in March, had found that 95 per cent of all pre-registration house officers met the targets of working a maximum of 56 hours a week.

A spokeswoman added: "All trusts are now required to include a maximum of 56 hours' work a week in all contracts of employment for new junior doctors.

"We are working closely with the medical profession to ensure that all juniors benefit from the reducing hours.

"We have given a hard-edged incentive to NHS trusts to work towards that maximum, as they risk losing money for the training of junior doctors if they do not comply."

Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said the problem lay in the Government's failure to expand the number of consultants and reduce the workload of the juniors.

"As a result, the sickest patients tend to be seen late at night by the least experienced doctors," Dr Harris said.

"In many cases, as these figures show, junior doctors are likely to be sleep-deprived or frantically busy."

"Trusts are faced with an impossible choice between meeting under-resourced government targets and treating their junior staff properly."