Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the appropriateness of the length of time junior doctors will be off shift following a nine or 10 hour night shift in the illustrative rotas for junior doctors, published by NHS Employers on 18 February 2016.

Ben Gummer

The new safeguards around shift working are based upon the UK Working Time Regulations, which set out minimum rest requirements between shifts. The new contract goes significantly further than these requirements. It reduces the number of consecutive shifts of nine or 10 hours length to eight from the current 12, with a 48 hour rest break, with further restrictions on consecutive long shifts or night shifts. This was agreed as reasonable with the British Medical Association. The illustrative rotas reflect these safeguards.