SURGEONS WARN PATIENTS’ LIVES ARE AT RISK
.. well, because we are not given basics like hot food and beds, fatigue levels are high and that means more chance of mistakes
SURGEONS have warned that patients’ lives are being put at risk because of a lack of rest areas and hot food for over-stretched doctors.
The Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh said because doctors lack basic comforts, their fatigue levels are heightened, which means they are more likely to make serious mistakes.
The college called for a return of the “doctors’ mess” – a room where duty medics can rest.
They also recommended the reintroduction of the daily consultant-led ward visit, a radical overhaul of staff rotas and much greater interaction between senior and junior staff.
In a report, the college say: “These recommendations, such as a hospital mess to ensure doctors have somewhere to eat and rest while on long shifts, are far from a luxury or perk.
“An exhausted, hungry doctor is more likely to make a mistake. These simple measures will help medical staff deliver better care and ensure less mistakes are made.”
The report warns that already stressful working environments for doctors are made worse by a lack of team structure, poor communication and limited training opportunities.
The college’s warnings came six years after junior doctor Lauren Connelly, 23, died during the early stages of her training when she crashed as she drove home from a night-shift at Greenock’s Inverclyde Royal Hospital. She had frequently worked 100-hour weeks.
Her death provoked an outcry and a Government promise to stop junior doctors working more than 48 hours a week.
But in May, Scottish Health Secretary Shona Robison withdrew that pledge, despite surveys showing 45 per cent of junior doctors in Scotland feel short of sleep on duty.
Professor Michael Lavelle-Jones, president of the RCS in Edinburgh and a consultant surgeon, said: “While the issues facing the NHS are broad and complex, we should not lose sight of the fact that strain within the system ultimately has an impact upon individual lives.
“We have been deeply saddened and concerned in recent years by the deaths of several doctors in training in circumstances believed to be associated with work-based stress or tiredness.
“This report offers a snapshot into what a cross-section of the UK healthcare profession think is lacking from their working environment.
“It is the college’s responsibility to represent the views and offer potential solutions to the wider profession and to the Government.” The Record told yesterday how nurses are also concerned about patient safety because of a lack of staff and the use of agency nurses.
The Royal College of Nursing raised their concerns to the Holyrood Health Committee.
The committee also heard from the Royal College of General Practitioners, who said a lack of funding for family doctors and a recruitment crisis were putting at risk patient care in deprived communities, where there are more health problems.
They said: “The results of inequalities are so profound in terms of health and wellbeing that funding must be made available as soon as possible through which to appropriately care for patients in areas of deprivation.
“In areas of deprivation, GP services are vital to the health and wellbeing of the population. Practices in these areas do not receive sufficient funding.
“A community cannot be ‘strong, resilient and supportive’ without access to appropriate healthcare. However, communities across Scotland now face the prospect of losing general practices as a part of their own vital infrastructure.
“With the number of GPs planning to leave the profession likely to exceed those coming into the profession for some years, practices are likely to continue to close.”