BMA anger over healthier hours for doctors

New
EU rules limiting doctors’ working hours will cost the NHS the work of at least
3,700 junior doctors, according to the British Medical Association (BMA).

New
regulations which come into force in August will mean doctors will only be
allowed to work 58 hours a week. Many junior doctors currently work up to 70
hours a week.

Dr
Simon Eccles, chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, told a House of
Lords EU committee that the NHS was in real trouble and could lose up to
270,000 hours of working time.

"We
have been trying to alert the Department of Health to the scale of the
impending disaster for at least three years," he said.

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Health
minister John Hutton had already told the House of Lords committee that the Government
expects to have to recruit between 6,000 and 12,000 doctors to cover the
shortfall.

By Michael Millar