Junior doctors 'still exhausted'

Junior doctors can still be expected to do four 13-hour shifts

Junior doctors at Cornwall's main hospital say they are still exhausted when they come off duty, despite cuts in their working week.

The European Working Time Directive has restricted the average week for junior doctors to 56 hours.

The move has forced the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust to recruit a further 15 doctors.

The extra staffing will add hundreds of thousands of pounds to the already overstretched budgets at Treliske.

Improvement

Junior doctor Alistair Hart says hours are still long.

"You can be doing a series of 13-hour shifts. It used to be seven of those in a row, but now it's been reduced to a maximum of four.

"It is improving all the time, but as with any job you can still be tired at the end of a long shift," he said.

"But unlike the old days where you had to carry on working for another couple of days, at least we know we're going to get home and get some sleep."