YOU rightly highlight the continuing problem of junior doctors working excessive hours (“Outcry over junior doctor hours”, The Herald, October 12), but it is not an isolated problem within the NHS. I would be confident in saying that the NHS relies on the overwhelming majority of staff contributing more in terms of time and effort than they are contractually obliged to. The staff do so simply because they care. It was always thus, I can recall as well as working nine to five and being compelled to be on-call, including performing surgery outwith normal business hours, 24/,for a period of 21 consecutive days before being entitled to any extra form of overtime payments, which were then paid at a fraction of the normal hourly rate.
The core problem then and now is how on a limited budget with insufficient staff to run a comprehensive 24-hour service that ensures that the same quality of care is available irrespective of time of day and at weekends and public holidays. The training of junior staff in the health service has a large element of “see one, do one, teach one” and a reduction in the hours worked by doctors in training will by necessity lead to less opportunity for on the job training. Would doctors in training accept a longer training scheme? Can the NHS stand the reduction in numbers of qualified consultants this would produce? Can the NHS function without the extra hours being worked by trainees?
Politicians and the public want an open-all-hours NHS when the reality is that this is not achievable within the current levels of funding and staffing. Junior doctors' hours is simply a sign of the ailment and not a cause of the condition. There is little at fault in our NHS that could not be solved by hiring more staff and giving them better facilities, but we would rather give it to the armaments industry for aircraft carriers which have no planes to fly from them and nuclear weapons in a futile attempt to allow UK plc to cling on to its membership of the superpower club.
David J Crawford,
Flat 3/3 131 Shuna Street, Glasgow.
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