The government has launched an eleventh hour review into the impact of the Working Time Directive on junior doctors’ training.
The Health Secretary Alan Johnson has asked Medical Education England, the advisory board on medical training, to commission the Post-graduate Medical Education and Training Board, the independent regulator of training standards, to identify areas where training may need to be changed.
It’s a response to fears that doctors’ training and patient safety will be compromised when a 48-hour week is introduced for trainees in August.
The royal colleges of surgeons and anaesthetists have been prominent in the debate on the dangers of a shortened working week for trainees, issuing a joint statement six months ago. Last week, two former royal college presidents wrote to The Times claiming that, in many specialties, proper care, teaching and experience cannot be delivered within a 48-hour week.
In launching the review, Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: “Given the concerns raised by some professional groups it is important that there is an independent and objective assessment of whether the introduction of the European Working Time Directive fully into the NHS will necessitate changes to the current system of postgraduate medical training.”
While the review was welcomed by doctors’ representatives, its launch just two months a head of WTD implementation on 1 August has drawn criticism.
A spokesperson for the Royal College of Surgeons of England said: “While we are pleased that the evidence we continue to provide has finally driven Department of Health to begin to look at this in depth and to begin to acknowledge the serious implications for surgical services and training – with just two months to go before the August deadline it is too little too late to avert serious disruption to surgery in the NHS.”
