A quarter of junior doctors drop out of NHS training as EU ruling limits time spent on wards

Daily Mail ^ | 9/6/10 | Paul Bentley

[Nachum]

An EU ruling that limits the amount of time junior doctors spend on wards during the day has led to almost a quarter dropping out of NHS training after two years.

And of those trainee doctors who do continue their training, more than a fifth are now turned down because they lack sufficient skills or experience.

The findings come from first survey into doctors’ training since the chaotic introduction of a European directive which has put a cap on the working hours of junior doctors.

Under the Working Time Directive, which was fully implemented in the NHS last August, junior doctors are now limited to a maximum 48-hour working week.

[jessduntno]

"An EU ruling that limits the amount of time junior doctors spend on wards during the day has led to almost a quarter dropping out of NHS training after two years. And of those trainee doctors who do continue their training, more than a fifth are now turned down because they lack sufficient skills or experience."

Now THAT is hilarious. Socialized medicine, coming soon to a Hospital near you.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Same is happening here, because of government involvement. There has been a big emphasis on outpatient/clinic based training in recent years as well. The problem is that this comes at the expense of exposure to critically ill patients in the hospital. The most important lesson learned from early residency training is how to recognize really sick from not so sick, and how to treat critically ill patients. Outpatient medicine is not generally critical care, and you have more time to cogitate on the clinical problems you encounter. Emphasizing outpatient care is just another political correctness directive from the same types of bureaucrats that are bringing you Obamacare, and it will result in insufficient training of physicians.