Patient safety at risk as junior doctors left to run A&Es

Inexperienced junior doctors are too often being left in charge of A&E and other units, jeopardising the safety of hospital patients, Britain’s medical regulator has warned.

The General Medical Council (GMC) told the Guardian that understaffing and pressures on senior doctors mean trainee medics are forced to ‘fend for themselves’ by looking after patients whose conditions they are not qualified to treat.

The boss of the GMC warned that junior doctors who act beyond their competence are ‘at risk losing their licence’ if the care they give the patient is insufficient and damages the patient’s heath.

In its annual survey of the education and training received by Britain’s 55,000 junior doctors, the GMC heard about incidents that caused concern about them being left in charge, despite their inexperience.

Charlie Massey, GMC chief executive, said: “We are very worried when trainees tell us that they have been put in a position where they have been asked to act above and beyond their clinical competence and capabilities. That’s a concern because it creates very clear risks to patients from doctors who may not know what they’re doing.

“In some cases trainees are being left to fend for themselves when they clearly don’t have the competence to make the decisions about patients’ treatment that are being asked of them. That’s a real concern. Significant proportion of trainees, especially those early in their careers, feel very exposed in terms of what they are being asked to do.

“Trainees left in this situation feel agitated and anxious that they don’t have enough supervision and worried that they might inadvertently cause harm to patients.”

Sarah Hallett, deputy chair of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee, said: “It is an all too common problem that many junior doctors move into new posts without a thorough induction.

“This is not the fault of senior doctors, who we know are under immense pressures and face ever-increasing workloads in a health service that is more and more overstretched. Despite this, it is crucial that junior doctors have access to appropriate training, and are able to work in an environment that is safe for both them and their patients.”