Up to 30 per cent of non-consultant doctors in some cases are working in excess of the maximum hours permitted under the terms of an EU directive introduced nearly three years ago, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has stated.
Under the directive, non-consultant doctors can work a maximum of only 58 hours per average working week. The directive also stipulates that doctors must be given specific daily and weekly rest periods.
It is understood that it is compliance with these rest and break periods that is causing most difficulties for health service management around the State.
IMO director of industrial relations Fintan Hourihan said that figures given to the organisation by the HSE last week showed that when these rest periods were excluded, 70 per cent of doctors were compliant with the terms of the working time directive. This left 30 per cent working longer than the officially permitted hours.
The IMO has expressed concern at the level of non-compliance with the directive.
The HSE did not comment on the figures for compliance with the working time directive set out by the IMO following its meeting with management.
A report drawn up by the Department of Health in March for its secretary general, Michael Scanlan, stated that many non-consultant hospital doctors were already compliant with the 58-hour week "but the most significant challenge is to achieve full compliance with the requirement for rests and breaks".
"Compliance with the 58 hours per week requirement will be difficult in smaller hospitals or in certain supra-regional specialties but key priority is the maintenance of safe, high-quality services to patients," it stated.
The report said a national co-ordinator and support teams had been appointed with a view to reducing non-consultant doctors' working hours and that draft rosters and systems for recording working time had been developed.
The department report said training principles and advice on safe rosters which complied with the directive had been provided to health service employers by the post-graduate medical training bodies and the Medical Council and a national implementation group had been established to give guidance to local implementation bodies.
The department report said 16 pilots were under way, including Cork, Mullingar, Letterkenny and Limerick, and a further three had been formally approved.
"When the work of these pilot sites is complete, the outcomes will be evaluated by the national implementation group with a view to introducing similar arrangements to similar sites," the report stated.
Under the terms of the European Working Time directive, the maximum hours which non-consultant doctors are allowed to work will be reduced further from later this year. From the beginning of August the maximum working week will be lowered to 56 hours and from the beginning of August 2009, it will be 48 hours.
