Doctors ‘regularly sleep deprived’

Junior doctors are “regularly sleep deprived” with more than one in five of those working at Scotland’s hospitals claiming working patterns leave them feeling short of sleep on either a weekly or daily basis, according to a new survey.

Research by the General Medical Council (GMC) found that 21% of junior doctors in Scotland were affected in this way by their working hours.

Almost a quarter (24%) of junior doctors said their working patterns left them feeling short of sleep on a monthly basis, while 18% said they felt this way at least once a week, while 3% reported it happened every day.

Just over a third (34%) said they were never left feeling short of sleep, while 22% said this happened to them less than once a month.

Meanwhile, 491 junior doctors in Scotland say they work beyond their rostered hours every day – with a further 1,876 reporting this happens once a week.

The figures were revealed in the GMC’s annual survey of doctors in training, which found across the UK 22.4% of junior doctors feel short of sleep at work on a daily or weekly basis.

The report said a “worrying number of doctors in training continue to raise concerns about heavy workloads and shortness of sleep on duty”.

Dr Adam Collins, chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland’s junior doctors committee, warned: “Fatigue can pose significant risks both to patients and to doctors themselves and it is essential we do more to address this issue.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said: “Junior doctors go into the profession knowing what a demanding learning curve it can be.

“But this survey reveals things have gone too far, and the demands being placed on them are too severe.

“That’s not good for the health of doctors, and it won’t help patient safety in the long-run either.”

MSP Miles Briggs.