The statistics are being handed to health ministers this week and show that, despite the weekly limit of 72 hours set in 1990, many NHS doctors are still working too long.

But the news is not all bad as the figures are coming down. They have fallen by around four per cent in the last year. But the drop is much more gradual than had been hoped.

Dr Andrew Hobart, of the British Medical Association's junior doctors' committee, said: "At this rate, it will take another eight years to get all trusts down to a 72-hour weekly limit. No junior doctor should work more than 72 hours a week."

The committee is to question health minister Alan Milburn about the problem at a meeting next Friday.

Patchy

It says the problem is "patchy", with some NHS hospitals introducing team-working and extending nursing duties to take pressure off junior doctors and others sticking with traditional ways of working.

The BMA is also worried that junior doctors in some specialisms are being lost to the NHS once they have finished their training because cash-strapped hospital trusts are cutting back on new consultant posts.

"We either overproduce trainees or under produce consultants," said Dr Hobart. "Junior doctors in specialisms like obstetrics get to the end of their five years' training and find they are redundant because there are no consultant posts. They feel they have been taken for a ride."

Overworked consultants

Doctors do their rounds, but how long have they been working?

The BMA believes increasing investment in consultant posts would save money for the NHS in the long term by reducing the number of expensive legal cases taken out against hospitals, particularly in the field of obstetrics.

Doctors are also worried that consultants are overworking because of political pressure to reduce waiting lists. Dr Hobart says many are working through the night to deal with emergency cases because operating theatres are busy catching up with the backlog of non-urgent cases during the day.