Trainees ignoring EWTD due to staff shortages

15 February 2010

JUNIOR doctors at a major UK hospital are working longer hours because stricter immigration laws have sparked a recruitment crisis.

The University Hospital of North Staffordshire has been granted a two-year opt out from the European Working Time Directive which stops doctors from working more than 48 hours a week. Trainees are instead reportedly being asked to put in up to 56 hours to cover vacancies which can no longer be filled by doctors from countries like India and Pakistan.

The hospital can no longer hire experienced locums from outside the EU due to a recent tightening of immigration rules. The hospital has now been granted the EWTD opt-out by the government to ensure services can be kept safe in its general medicine and kidney care specialties which have been most affected by the changes.

The hospital’s medical director Robert Courteney-Harris has called for immigration rules to be relaxed. He said: “We have relied for years on doctors coming over from India and Pakistan to fill gaps and keep services going and this country owes them a debt of gratitude. We are currently unable to draw up full rotas for junior doctors if they are not allowed to work over 48 hours a week.”

His views are backed by the BMA who have called for greater flexibility in recruiting overseas doctors.