EU WORKING HOURS DIRECTIVE-NOT WORKING

From the Telegraph Junior doctors are being pressurised to lie about their long working hours to meet new European regulations, a new poll shows.

More than one in 10 said that they had been asked to falsify information.

The survey was released as the Royal College of Surgeons warned that hospitals were being tempted to employ "dangerous working practices" to meet the regulations.

Under new rules which come into force at the start of August hospital doctors will not be allowed to work more than 48 hours a week.

But there has been strong criticism of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) from within the profession amid claims that it will affect patient safety and damage the standard of doctor training, prompting ministers to announce a review last week.

Of 35, 298 junior doctors who responded, 31,360 said that their hours were compliant "on paper".

But one in 10 said that this was because they had been asked to lie.

Of the 3,938 whose hours showed that they had worked more than 48 hours, 17 per cent also said that they had been asked to lie but had refused to do so.

Dr Andy Thornley, chairman of the BMA's Junior Doctor Committee said the findings were "deeply worrying and a sad reflection on the Government's failure to properly prepare for the full implementation of the EWTD".

He added "We are concerned that the NHS has allowed a culture of lying and deception to develop instead of looking at what needs to be done to maintain patient services and training opportunities for junior doctors."

I suppose these doctors realise that they can be hauled before the GMC for lying about their hours.

Why is there a need to lie? Tell the truth and show that the working hours directive for junior doctors does not work and never will.

“Private and public life are subject to the same rules; and truth and manliness are two qualities that will carry you through this world much better than policy, or tact, or expediency, or any other word that was ever devised to conceal or mystify a deviation from the straight line.”-General Robert E Lee

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