Junior doctors’ working hours unmonitored by EWTD

The NHS in England is unable to provide information about the level of compliance of junior doctors’ working hours to the European Working Time Directive (EWTD), BMJ Careers reports.

The directive limits working hours to 48 per week, and the governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales all continue to collect and review this data for doctors in training. However, the practice was cancelled in England in August 2010 to decrease the amount of paperwork.

Wales has a 100% compliance with the EWTD, Scotland has a rate of 99% and Northern Ireland reported 78% compliance.

Commenting on the situation, Dr Shree Datta, co-chair of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee said: “I think we’re talking about patient safety as well as doctor safety, so it would be really useful to see the ministerial returns back in place.”

A spokesperson for Department of Health in England said: “As part of the government's commitment to reduce bureaucracy in the NHS, the Secretary of State has stopped the central collection of new deal compliance data which was used as a proxy to demonstrate compliance with the working time directive.

“Local organisations are still required to ensure compliance with the working time directive and to monitor that compliance.”