Doctors must tell truth on hours

LETTER: The medics are trained and taught to tell the truth in fairness to their patients and society. I felt disgusted to read in the Shropshire Star on May 25 that medics are told to tell lies about their working hours.

The new working directive from the European Union is that junior doctors work up to 48 hours a week.

It is possible that hospital trust managers want to save money by not paying extra cash for the extra hours of work or employing additional junior doctors.

It is immoral to tell the junior doctors to lie about their working hours. It means that they are encouraging a culture of corruption in the medical profession and it is also unethical advice.

The British Medical Association and the General Medical Council are the appropriate bodies to look into this matter. Junior doctors are fortunate to work 48 hours a week.

I used to work as a registrar from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, long weekends starting on Friday and ending on Monday evening.

I am very pleased that justice has been done to the junior doctors with a reduction in their working hours so that they can spend more time on post-graduate studies and with their families and there is less risk of mistakes. Morality is becoming more of a rarity in the 21st century.

Juniors should not fall into the trap of lies, they should act in accordance to the voice of their conscious.

Dr Nak Mahmandi

Telford