Sir, – At some point every reader of this newspaper or someone close to them will be in hospital. They may, in the middle of the night, meet a doctor who has been working continuously for more than 36 hours without rest, or more than 48 hours in the case of surgeons. That doctor would not, by law, be allowed to drive a patient home in a taxi, nor to fly a plane, or to do nearly any other job one could mention, and yet will be responsible for the lives of other people.
Long shifts like this are worked by doctors in Ireland on a regular basis for years on end, to their cost and the cost of the patients they attempt to look after while too tired to work safely.
The conditions under which non-consultant hospital doctors work in Ireland have been an unacknowledged national emergency for years. They will continue to be so unless Irish citizens ask themselves and their public representatives if they want to be cared for by doctors whose decision-making and procedural skills are greatly hindered by exhaustion.
The principle of informed consent is a crucial aspect of modern medicine, the crux being that patients should be given all pertinent information about a treatment or procedure and allowed to proceed or refuse as they wish. Perhaps we should begin informing patients of the risks arising out of being cared for by exhausted but dedicated doctors. When their consent is sought, perhaps they, like many of our doctors, will vote with their feet. – Yours, etc,