Audit of post-midnight surgical ward calls

摘要

Audit of post-midnight surgical ward calls The European Working Time Directive (EWTD) and its subsequent interpretation by the Department of Health and the British Medical Association has decreased the hours worked by trainee doctors with a move to a shift pattern of work. Many deaneries and hospital Trusts have withdrawn preregistration house officers (PRHOs) from night work, resulting in more senior doctors covering their duties at night. While this has its advantages there is a negative impact on doctors' training.12 Theoretically, night shift work should predominantly be medical emergencies rather than work that could have been dealt with in the day, but there is a perception that an increasing amount of routine work is being left for the night shift. We therefore audited calls made to first on-call junior doctors in the surgical and orthopaedic departments in order to determine the nature and necessity of the calls received after midnight.