Heavy workloads causing rota-gap dangers

Over half of all doctors in training say they work beyond their rostered hours at least weekly, according to the General Medical Council’s (GMC) national training surveys.

The initial findings of the survey, of over 53,000 doctors in training and over 24,000 senior doctors who act as trainers, found that 53 per cent of training doctors worked beyond their rostered hours at least weekly, while 22 per cent claimed their working patterns left them feeling short of sleep at work on a daily or weekly basis.

Reflecting upon rota design and education, 31 per cent of doctors in training either ‘disagreed’ or ‘strongly disagreed’ with the notion that education and training opportunities were rarely lost due to gaps in rotas, with 27 per cent of trainers sharing this view.

Charlie Massey, GMC’s chief executive said: “Workload issues, and the impact they can have on doctors’ education and training, remain a persistent and troubling issue. Tiredness and fatigue can impair decision-making, and so can impact on patients as well as the doctors themselves.

“Our early findings suggest some trainees have experienced improvements in workloads since last year. This is welcome, and it’s important that we acknowledge the work being done, across all four UK nations, to deal with these pressures. However, it is too early to determine whether it is the start of a longer-term trend. We know from our wider conversations with trainees that the situation for them continues to be very challenging. In the meantime it is important that education providers do what they can protect the quality of training and the wellbeing of doctors, using the results of this year’s surveys to target their efforts.”

Jeeves Wijesuriya, BMA junior doctors committee chair, said of the survey: “These findings provide another opportunity for politicians to listen to doctors and take action. It is unacceptable for both patient care and doctors’ well-being that more than half of those surveyed say they are working beyond their rostered hours, and one in five say working patterns regularly leave them short of sleep. The pressure of working in an NHS at breaking point, with chronic NHS underfunding and staff shortages puts doctors at greater risk of fatigue and burnout.”