Following the annoucement that Trusts in England will receive an extra £30-60K for improving rest facilities for doctors, DAUK was asked to comment with ideas on how the money could be best spent.
Our Chair, Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden said in the BMJ:
“Don’t forget doctors who cannot get to the mess. Satellite rest hubs could be considered for areas such as labour ward, neonatal, paediatric, and adult intensive care units, and emergency departments, where doctors may not be able to get away. Providing expressing facilities for breastfeeding mothers is an important but often neglected consideration. None of this is revolutionary, but getting the basics is important if we are to start treating doctors as human beings, not just numbers on the rota.”
Commenting on the article, Sammy also said:
“This announcement is great news for doctors in England, and we would like to thank the BMA for their hard work in securing this. I would like to see this money being directed toward providing plentiful free accommodation for doctors to rest both during, and after a shift, instead of being forced to drive home tired.”
“DAUK have been campaigning for a more Compassionate Culture in the NHS after collating over 1000 stories from doctors about their mistreatment during training under the banner of #NHSMeToo. Many of these stories were from doctors who had been involved in serious road traffic collisions driving home from a night shift, or had sadly lost colleagues who were thought to have fallen asleep at the wheel. It is inhumane and unacceptable that doctors are losing their lives because of lack of rest facilities.”
A poll across DAUK’s social media platforms found that the majority of doctors wanted to see the extra funding directed towards providing on call rooms, in particular for doctors to rest at the end of the shift. Another popular suggestion was the provision of hot food out of hours.
Read the full article here:
https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l2316
