The European Working Time Directive, which limits the hours employees are allowed to work, means junior hospital doctors cannot receive the training they need to become a consultant gastroenterologist, according to results of a survey presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Society of Gastroenterology recently.
Asurvey of Specialist Registrars (SpRs) in gastroenterology found that limits to working hours meant that they missed out on a quarter of the clinics they were supposed to attend and a third of the ward rounds led by a consultant. Because they were working elsewhere, the junior doctors surveyed also missed out on meetings to discuss management of patients with cancer, and to discuss laboratory test results.
