To be honest, I read stuff like this and find it quite concerning that doctors are allowed to work these hours. Pilots, air traffic controllers and even construction workers have regulations in place which prevent them from working excess hours for safety reasons.
I've never had any trouble working a long shift, and I cannot think of anyone I've worked with whose struggled (and this includes mature aged students). People get tired as the day goes on, but if you are a competent doctor then you won't let it compromise patient safety. The reason why people struggle is because of how busy the shift gets, not because of its length.
There are plenty of regulations on junior doctors just as there are on other industries. In my previous hospital we were only allowed to do 2 rostered overtime shifts per week if we had a ward job. Just remember that pilots, construction workers will still do long shifts. Unfortunately it is the nature of rostering (finishing at 11pm and starting at 6am three days in a row) and the amount of unrostered overtime that causes issues.
And the hours increase as you go up the scale. An orthopedic registrar on-call over a weekend in a busy hospital will start work at 7:30am on a Friday morning and finish work at 4:30pm the next Monday, and during that entire time may only have a few hours sleep because of the amount of work they have to do.
Again, there are reasons why some specialties are extremely competitive and not once has he talked about the fact that a lot of specialties are actually UNDERSUBSCRIBED and aren't very competitive.
What are these specialties you speak of??? Looking through the AMC list of recognised specialties, I can think of psychiatry (becoming increasingly difficult), rehab, public health (what do they even do), sexual health and maybe palliative care.
That many GP programs are oversubscribed should give you an idea that the situation is as bad as people make it out to be, and it's not getting better because this is what the government wants (forces more people to join ACRRM and become a country GP, which is where they need doctors).
The official working hours for a junior medical officer in Australia aren't too bad. You might go over if you are in surgery, but cover doctors should be there to take up the slack (they may give you **** for handing them work but that's why they are there, as long as you've put in effort during your shift). I don't think doctors at a junior level necessarily have it worse than other health professions. A theatre tech the other day was complaining about a 14hr shift and there are plenty of non-medical staff who have to do evening or night duty.
With respect I disagree with two things.
Depending on your rotation it is very easy to work a large amount of unrostered overtime if you are doing your job right. After hours doctors are there to deal with things that arise when the day team isn't there, they should not be caught up with med charts and cannulas that the day teams were too lazy to do. It can be forgiven if you are working 1-2 hours over and are too tired to do a med chart, it is a poor reflection on you if you leave on time with a number of jobs outstanding, especially if they are clinical reviews. And surgery is far from having the busiest jobs, try a rural medical rotation or a metro oncology/haematology job.
On the whole doctors do have it harder than other health professionals in hospitals, but we have the greatest payoff at the end. Nurses may have shiftwork which includes evening and night shifts, but they are limited to 80 hours/fortnight (unlike doctors who are 80 hours/fortnight plus rostered overtime) and have the option to work extra overtime if they wish but are protected by their award if they choose not to (unlike doctors who are compelled to). They also have protected breaks, unlike JMOs who may do 10 hours straight without a toilet break on a busy shift.
Physiotherapists, speech pathologists and the like do have weekend work, but they are either compensated by a day off during the week, or are on a roster which provides a lot less overtime than JMOs. Theatre nurses and radiologists on call have a number of arrangements which benefit them if they get called in (time off, significant penalty rates). And to top it all off, doctors (including interns) have clinical responsibility for patients which they review.
That's not to denigrate the other health professions, who work extremely hard and, on a case by case basis, may outdo their intern/RMO. But a realistic picture needs to be presented to people considering medicine, and it is not a bed of roses.
