A newly-announced £10m investment in doctors’ rest facilities are welcomed, as many are ‘fundamentally unsafe’, says the BMA
Many of the country’s hospitals have no rest facilities for doctors and many have inadequate rest areas that require significant modernisation, says the BMA. So, the new announcement that the government is to invest £10m upgrading or installing rest areas or other facilities to improve the lives of junior doctors, is welcome news.
Junior doctors often work long and intense shifts; patient care is being placed at risk if doctors, who are providing round-the-clock care, do not have somewhere to rest. Doctors report having to take a nap in their car, rent a blanket or find a space on the office floor to take a short rest break.
The BMA has been told of one hospital trust which has a sign, from the medical director, on a door to a room used by doctors for their breaks, which says that ‘rest but not sleep’ is permitted whilst on shift.
The BMA’s Fatigue and Facilities Charter was published in March 2018. It outlined steps that could be taken to improve facilities. As a result, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed that it would support doctors with £10m to improve working conditions in hospitals across the country.
The BMA is delighted that the government has backed this support with tangible investment. Since then, Health Education England has been working with the BMA to fairly allocate the funding across the country.
All NHS hospital trusts in England will receive £30,000 – a total of £6.3m, with the remaining balance being shared among those hospitals who are in greater needed of investment.
Chair of the BMA East of England regional junior doctors committee and Fatigue and Facilities Charter lead, Dr Rowan Gossedge, spoke about the challenges many doctors face when trying to take adequate breaks. He said:
“We know of doctors being charged a few pounds by a hospital, to rent a blanket, before trying to find a quiet chair or space on a floor in an office. Others are forced to grab five minutes’ rest in their cars, in a car park where they have had to pay to park, simply because there is nowhere for them to rest, refresh and reflect away from the intense environment of the ward.
“We have been told of some of our junior doctor members being threatened with disciplinary action for taking a rest on a night, others monitored by security staff and then reprimanded, as the room they slept in had cameras. Many trusts have no access to food provision between 7pm and 7am.
“Junior doctors work some of the longest and most intense shifts in a hospital. Overnight they may have responsibility for dozens of very poorly patients and if doctors are not properly rested and focused, they cannot provide the quality of care – safe care – those patients expect and need.
“Many doctors, finishing long and stressful night shifts often have nowhere to rest or sleep before their commute home, when they will often be driving long distances. That is morally wrong and fundamentally unsafe.”
Gossedge went on: “We’re delighted that, after persistent lobbying from the BMA, all hospital trusts in England have signed up to our Fatigue and Facilities Charter, and crucially as part of the 2018 contract review, the government is now providing funding for hospitals to make these improvements.
“It’s incredible the difference that a quiet room, some comfy chairs and beds, or even just a functioning kitchen and dining area, can make to the wellbeing or doctors; after all, a rested doctor is a safe doctor.”
Welcoming the investment, the chair of the BMA junior doctors committee, Dr Jeeves Wijesuriya, said:
“This much-needed investment from the Department of Health and Social Care, as an early outcome from the 2018 junior doctors contract review, is extremely welcome and an example of how targeted funding can make a tangible difference to working lives of junior doctors.
“The BMA has been tirelessly campaigning for improved and more readily available rest facilities and we are pleased to see that the secretary of state for health and social care has listened to our concerns and responded with positive action.
“It has been encouraging to see the overwhelmingly supportive response from hospital Trusts, all of whom have now endorsed the BMA’s Fatigue and Facilities Charter, recognising the importance of adequate, free to use rest facilities for staff. Improving the working environment is a key driver in retaining NHS staff.
“While there is a still a long way to go to alleviating the enormous pressure on juniors and achieving the work/life balance, a commitment of this kind is a significant step which we hope will start to make stories of doctors being injured or worse when driving home after long shifts, a thing of the past.”
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