Doctors working 100+ hours a week at the Hospital
Thursday 21st July 2011, 2:57PM BST.
Health Minister Anne Pryke
TWO Hospital doctors were each on duty for more than 100 hours one week last month.
The two doctors, one in general surgery and the other in psychiatry, worked 105 hours and 104 hours respectively during the week of 6 June to 13 June.
Health Minister Anne Pryke told the States yesterday that the doctors were on call continuously for 48 hours during that time, meaning they could be at home and called into work if necessary. They did not have to stay at the Hospital for their on-call shifts.
The information was supplied by Deputy Pryke following a question from Senator Sarah Ferguson about the total hours of duty worked by Hospital middle-grade doctors.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
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Headline – doctors working 100+ hours a week at the hospital.
Story –
doctors were on call continuously for 48 hours during that time, meaning they could be at home and called into work if necessary. They did not have to stay at the Hospital for their on-call shifts.
So they weren’t actually working this time at the hospital after all, they were on call, I’m on call 24/ 365, doesn’t mean the phone’s going to ring, I just have to be available if it does.Also it was only for one week, I am permanantly on call even if on holiday.
Sensationalist headline, now lets see the idiots mis read it and say they are overworked.
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This can’t be right.
How do they expect doctors to work all these hours and keep mentally and physical alert?
With the population rising steeply in recent years they should be keeping track and employing more in essential services,otherwise mistakes will be made and we will all suffer the consequences of a shoddy service
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No doubt they were handsomely paid for overtime.
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the doctor, who attened to my wife looked dead on his feet in the a and e department.
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After listening to nurse recently, the states have invested heavily in advertising nursing posts and with no takers for the 20 + posts available.
The reason for no-one taking up the positions, word has got out how expensive it is to rent a shoe box over here along with the high cost of everything else, the politics that have gone crazy along with huge amounts of admin work taking them away from their main job, the patients. Those that stay are the ones who have started families and or married and can find somewhere decent to stay. H&SS have got to do something to attract staff other than a wage packet and plenty of overtime.
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Working 100 Hours and been on call are two different things. If they were at the Hospital for 100 Hours then yes it is bad and needs looking into but these Doctors were at home for a certain amount of the 100 hours and were able to get rest, the only difference is they are paid for it.
How many of the 100 Hours were they on call at home?
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In the Hospital where I live, I worked for a number of years as a volunteer.
One day I called for the lift to take me up to the 9th floor. When the lift opened, there was a young medic standing asleep in the corner of the lift. He was still asleep when we reached the bottom, so I sent the lift, with him in it back up to the 9th floor. That goes to show just how tired these people can get.
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Simple…get rid of more administrators and hire more Doctors….would you want the pilot of your plane to have been at work a hundred hours prior to taking offf…what about a worn out and jaded Doc jagging 5 cc.s no sorry was that 15 cc.s of some powerful and potentially damaging drugs into you bleary eyed at 4-00 am…?
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Bo you hit a nerve….go see what is where the Nurses Home was in Gloucester street…we had a flippin onsite accom for them …and guess waht happened to it….and now they cant recruit because of accom probs…idiots
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I am amazed at the amount of GP doctors in Jersey who just sit all day writing out perscriptions and charging 40-50 pounds per 15 minutes per patient. Should they not help out their fellow doctors at the hospital.
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I guess it would have something to do with budgets – the civil servants are probably sitting round talking (and costing thousands) whilst the poor old doctors have to cover for the lack of foresight in staff number requirements, and poor rota planning by the administrators
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@ 5 Bo you are spot on, from what I have heard. Nurses can’t afford to live here and they can get a better deal elsewhere so that’s where they go. If we want more high calibre nurses we’ll have to either up their pay or subsidise some accommodation for them.
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#5 Well said Bo. Are nursing and teaching not classed as ‘essential employment’ because they are about as essential as it gets!
Admittedly Jersey is never going to attract any nurses who are really pursuing their career, just as it won’t attract any doctors who are really pursuing their career. But sometimes you get someone who is exceptionally good who just isn’t ambitious and it would be good to attract those people.
This 105 hours is nothing if it did include 48hrs on-call, but the fact that Jersey cannot attract people to essential positions is something!
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