Letter

Dangerously long hours

Dear healthmatters — Health Secretary Kenneth Clarke recently said: ‘Most junior doctors do not work excessive hours.’ However, the Health Minister, David Mellor, says nearly half the junior doctors work 89 hours or more per week and 2,500 of them work more than 100 hours per week.

I was called on a Sunday night to a woman who had just delivered a baby. It was near the end of an 80 hour weekend shift — a normal weekend for most junior doctors. The midwife had done an episiotomy, a cut to aid delivery.

I was exhausted and messed up the stitching. I went to the woman and apologised. I was ashamed. She was very kind though. Many patients realise you try your hardest and work dangerously long hours.

When I talked publicly of this and about a doctor who had fallen asleep at the operating table, the Health Minister said ‘these stories have the whiff of fishermen’s tales’. The following day we produced the doctor.

Many more stories of mistakes were to follow; an anaesthetist fell asleep for 15 minutes during a long operation; a doctor who had the job of nudging the surgeon every minute to keep him awake; a doctor who gave an overdose of insulin to a child. She had to stay up all night doing blood tests every half an hour to make sure the child was alright.

Sadly, some mistakes are fatal. Four years ago Brian and Lorraine Jones had a child. The child developed meningitis and was given three times the normal amount of antibiotic. The coroner said this was partially responsible for the child’s death. The doctor had been very tired. Ms Jones had been a nurse and amazingly her response was to blame a system that made junior doctors work these long hours. She said ‘the doctor had been trying to help my child’.

A study done on a group of Bristol doctors found that 85 percent of doctors admitted one or more mistakes in one year resulting from tiredness. How many more mistakes and deaths do we need before the ministers realise that most junior doctors do work dangerously long hours?