08.10.13
94% of emergency consultants work over contracted hours
The majority of A&E doctors are under “intolerable pressure”, a new report has revealed.
The College of Emergency Medicine found that 62% of emergency consultants think their jobs are not sustainable in the long term, and 94% work more than their contracted hours. This could also have implications for retaining these doctors in the NHS, the report warned.
Dr Taj Hassan, vice president of the college and one of the authors of the report, said: “Senior medical decision makers in emergency medicine provide one of the most vital strands in maintaining safety for emergency care systems in the UK.
“A failure to address these issues will compromise this ability and also further worsen the present workforce crisis affecting emergency departments.”
A Department of Health spokesman said: “We know we need to do more to support emergency departments to do their important work through winter and beyond.
“We are also investing in other parts of the health service, to help keep people healthier and out of A&E departments in the first place.”
Dean Royles, chief executive of NHS Employers, called for “urgent changes” to doctors’ working patterns and said: “NHS Employers plans to enter formal negotiations with the British Medical Association this year, seeking contractual changes that can address many of the issues in emergency care.
“Doctors and employers have already agreed two priorities for these discussions – encouraging more consultants, not just Emergency Care doctors, to be present at nights and weekends, and addressing what is making other careers more attractive than emergency medicine.”
Matt Tee, chief operating officer of the NHS Confederation, added: “A cultural change is needed to introduce seven day a week working in the NHS and social care. We also need a greater shift of our resources to enhance community services, so that patients receive care closer to home.”
The RCP’s director of medical workforce Dr Andrew Goddard, agreed that there was an “unmanageable workload” in A&E which made emergency medicine “unattractive to trainees”.
Dr Alistair Douglas, SAM President said: “A key part of the solution is to ensure that patients are moved quickly into ward beds as soon as a decision has been made that they need to be admitted to hospital.
“Unfortunately the pressure on hospital capacity means that this is often not possible and patients remain in the emergency department, adding to the pressure which the emergency department staff find themselves under. With winter rapidly approaching, we need to work quickly to resolve this problem.”
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