Lack of childcare effecting female doctors

The British Medical Association has warned that female doctors are less likely to be working on the front line of the coronavirus crisis because they struggle to secure childcare.

The doctor’s association has said the closure of schools and childcare providers during the lockdown had caused problems for thousands of healthcare workers, with many cases of fit and healthy doctors being forced to stay home when the NHS needs them more than ever.

A BMA poll found that 13 per cent of 4,100 doctors had been unable to work or had been forced to cut their hours for this reason, with the evidence showing that the burden of high childcare costs often fell particularly hard on women.

The research also suggested that unpredictable hours were also a factor in doctors being unable to work, or to work less than the usual high standards, with some medics currently working three 13-hour shifts before having three days off.

Helena McKeown, chair of the BMA representative body, told the Independent: “This is evidence-based. We don’t want doctors lying awake at night worrying about childcare or worrying about childcare while with patients. One in five of our doctor parents have had to use new childcare during the crisis. It is incredibly stressful to get a child settled with a new childcare person. There is a massive emotional burden of doctors worrying about how their child is being looked after.

“We have had doctors who have said to us, ‘My main stress during the whole coronavirus nightmare has honestly been about childcare.' Stress causes a reduction in the ability to make decisions and increases the likelihood of a mistake being taken. Errors in medicine are worse as they are life-threatening. Doctors are humans too. Having fewer doctors because of issues with childcare impacts on other doctors who work with parent doctors.

“They have had to do more shifts at short notice. It is a domino effect. This affects our ability to provide one-to-one care with our patients, and to be refreshed, and be 100 per cent on the ball. Medicine is 24/7. These issues have been a worry of mine for most of the crisis because of the 13-hour shifts that doctors have had imposed on them, which wasn’t negotiated.”