Junior doctors furious NHS bosses' new 'sample' rotas will not guarantee no consecutive weekends

[Northerner]

Junior doctors are furious after updated "example" rotas showed them working as many as three consecutive weekends - despite politicians promising "no doctor will be ever be expected to work two weekends in a row".

Medics vented their frustration following the release of rotas by NHS Employers - the umbrella organisation representing all healthcare trusts - which only guarantee they will not work more than half the weekends in a 15-week period.

Many of them suggested on Twitter that the new rotas show NHS chiefs are out of touch with what it is like to work in the health service

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...cians-claims-they-will-not-have-a6888776.html

 

[SB2015]

The junior doctors that I know are already exhausted, and it is not just the weekends. The long days are also Very Long.

 

[Northerner]

To me the whole things is a bit of a nonsense The one group of people you want to be alert and striking a healthy and satisfying life/work balance are healthcare professionals, yet they seem to be the group least likely to achieve it or indeed to be given the chance of achieving it

I once worked from 7 am to 9pm, Monday to Saturday, for about 3 weeks to try and complete a project that had been given a virtually impossible deadline. My boss asked me to work Sundays as well. I refused, and was told I had 'no commitment' 😱 The difference between that experience for me, and that of junior doctors these days, is that I wasn't expected to do that throughout my career, nor was what I was doing life or death.