I HOPE that those at the “coal face” of medical training and others in the medical profession may have the answer to the disturbing evidence of fatigue among young doctors which has always been a sorry part of the practice of medicine.
I don’t.
But Brian Connelly, the father of young medic Lauren Connelly who died in 2011 in a road accident after 12 hour shifts has my sympathy and support for his campaign to reduce young doctors’ hours (“Tragic doctor’s father in fresh plea”, The Herald, November 28).
From personal experience I know of one newly-qualified doctor killed stepping off the kerb after a long shift, read about others killed in road crashes, one who had to be wakened after falling sleep at traffic lights, one young colleague weeping with tiredness, and two who committed suicide shortly after qualifying.
Good luck to Mr Connelly. This is an issue long waiting to be remedied.
R Russell Smith,
96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel