BMJ 1995;311:1299 (11 November)

Letters

Flexible partial shifts should be made to work

EDITOR,--The new deal on junior doctors' hours arose out of an agreement signed in 1990, the government having been forced to address the issue of hours of work by a sustained campaign of publicity by junior doctors over the proceeding 3 years. Under the terms of the new deal no doctors should work more than 56 hours, whatever their working pattern. Set in the context of a maximum average of 72 hours on call, this obviously implies periods of rest.1 Despite the rantings of Christopher Wong this is not a new policy.1 2

The new deal is far from perfect and fell far short of our aspirations. It was, however, the best agreement that could have been attained within the financial constraints set by the government and was signed in the belief that a little progress was better than none at all. The 100 hour week that Wong refers to as . . . [Full text of this article]


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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Campbell, L M, Lough, J R M, Murray, T S (1996). Summative assessment in general practice. BMJ 313: 1556-1556 [Full text]  
  • Coppola, W. (1995). Proposals may damage one of finest examples of postgraduate medical education. BMJ 311: 1573b-1573 [Full text]  
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