Patient care 'put at risk'

Patient care in British hospitals will be put in jeopardy if European plans to shorten junior doctors' hours are forced through, a damning new report warns today.

A crippling staff crisis - equivalent to the loss of more than 3,700 doctors' posts - would be triggered by any attempt to introduce the EU working-time directive, doctors' groups told a high-level parliamentary inquiry.

Under the Brussels plans, junior doctors are scheduled to have their work cut from an average of 80 hours a week to 58 hours a week by this August, with a further reduction to 48 hours by 2009. But the British Medical Association, professional bodies for doctors and nurses and the NHS Confederation have all united against the proposals.

The Royal College of Physicians said it was concerned that "compliance will have serious long-term effects for continuity of care, patient safety and the education and training of doctors".

The BMA estimated that as many as 10,000 doctors' posts could effectively be lost when the full 48-hour limit came into force. Even though the NHS was experimenting with new ways of working, fresh rulings from the European courts meant that the health service "cannot possibly comply" with the directive by the August deadline, the report said. The whole issue should instead be deferred for years, it urged.

Tony Blair is under heavy pressure from other countries to scrap Britain's opt-out of the EU legislation but the committee said that the looming crisis over doctors' hours was a clear reason why Britain should protect its exemptions.

It found that other key workers, such as oil and gas crews and long- distance lorry drivers, were worried that Brussels would interpret its remit to cover their industries with a devastating effect on the economy.

Mr Blair has described the EU directive as "the single worst piece of legislation" ever to come out of Europe but has already agreed to phase in shorter hours.

The Lords inquiry, which represents Parliament's formal response to the European Commission, singled out two European Court of Justice rulings for attack.

In one judgment, the court decided that time spent on call in a hospital was working time, even if the doctor was asleep.

In another judgment last October, it ruled that doctors had to take lengthy compulsory breaks if their sleep was interrupted by a minor emergency.

Health Minister John Hutton admitted to the Lords inquiry that this rest ruling "would potentially have a massively destructive effect across the NHS" but claimed that a "sensible" way of implementing the directive could be found.

The new rulings have proved so unpopular that France and Spain have applied for a UK-style opt-out for the health workers and Germany, Austria and Holland are planning to do so.