EWTD: maintaining the pressure

Abstract

The ill-judged introduction of the 48-hour week demanded by the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) was the first news item on every television and radio programme on Saturday 1 August, indicating just how successful the College has been in raising public concern. It was encouraging that the British Medical Association (BMA) speakers were for the first time expressing serious anxiety, largely about the effects on training and about pressure being put on junior doctors to falsify their hours returns. All conversions to the cause are welcome, however late in the day. It is disappointing that the BMA is not yet stressing the dangers to patients, which they are surely hearing about from their members working in the acute specialties.