UK: British Medical Association report: "Overworked doctors must be allowed to rest and recover so we can keep patients safe, BMA warns"

[Andy]

Won't they just become deconditioned though??

Overworked doctors must be allowed to rest and recover so we can keep patients safe, BMA warns

Doctors must be allowed to rest and recuperate from the exhaustion of working throughout the pandemic if we want to have safe patient care in the future, the BMA has said.

In a new report, Rest, recover, restore: Getting UK health services back on track, the Association argues that the pandemic has left the health service running on empty, with staff burnt out, disillusioned, and even considering leaving the NHS as a result of the intense pressures and stress of the past year.

The report points out that pushing doctors to ‘get the NHS back to normal’, without giving them the respite and support they need, will not only result in increasingly high absence rates and staff reducing their hours, but also threaten patient care and safety.

Against a backdrop of current workforce shortages, patient demand outstripping staffing levels, and tens of thousands of clinical and non-clinical vacancies in hospitals and a shortage of GPs, the need for a strong and healthy workforce is obvious.

https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-ce...ecover-so-we-can-keep-patients-safe-bma-warns

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

Won't they just become deconditioned though??

Something that interested me as a houseman working two 36 hour shifts a week (on top of normal hours of course) was how deconditioned I became. I had been captain of a swimming team yet after6months on the wards I struggled to make a length.

This led me to theorise that exercise under conditions of stress and poor sleep actually had no fitness-enhancing effect. Maybe that is relevant to ME/CFS?