Doctors’ overtime deemed unhealthy

Adraft proposal capping the overtime hours of doctors working in medical institutions was submitted during a recent meeting of a panel of experts at Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. According to the proposal, the total overtime hours for doctors in general will be set at 960 hours a year, but it condones up to 2000 hours of overtime a year – or some 160 hours a month – for doctors at certain institutions providing crucial medical services to the local community, such as emergency treatment.

While the logic behind the proposed cap is that such levels of overtime are vital to sustain the services provided at those institutions, 160 hours is twice the amount of overtime linked to death from overwork under a health ministry guideline.

It must be carefully reviewed whether such a lax regulation is sufficient to protect the health of medical professionals. The long hours and heavy workload of doctors at hospitals and other medical institutions in Japan have long been considered a serious problem. Other measures are being considered for reducing hospital doctors’ workload, such as delegating tasks currently performed by them to other staff when possible.

Along with such efforts, more steps to protect the health of doctors should be explored, including a more effective regulation to reduce their overtime hours.