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Slater and Gordon investigating 100+ hour doctor weeks
Plaintiff firm Slater and Gordon is investigating a class action into the systematic culture of excessive and unsafe working hours for hospital-based doctors, it has said.
Grace Ormsby
The firm’s head of class actions, Ben Hardwick, said junior doctors especially, are regularly working well in excess of their rostered shifts, with some reportedly working up to 100 hours in a single week.
Mr Hardwick said “there is immense pressure on doctors to work excessive hours, particularly in surgery departments and other demanding practice areas, and that the extreme workload is contributing to a tox culture and jeopardising patient safety and doctors’ mental and physical health.”
“Doctors should not be made to feel pressured to work such long hours that they suffer mentally and physically as a result, and they should definitely not be made to feel as if their careers would suffer if they protected their right to a healthy working environment,” he continued.
“No worker – including health professionals – should have to do such excessive amounts of unpaid overtime, especially when the lives of everyday people are in their hands.”
“The last thing anyone wants is for an overworked, and overtired young doctor to make a critical mistake which could potentially be fatal to one of their patients,” Mr Hardwick explained.
Slater & Gordon cited an anonymous doctor who had spoken with the firm, who said that it was “unheard of” for doctors to claim overtime for unrostered hours at most hospitals, despite being officially entitled to it.
The doctor explained they would be “laughed at” if they attempted to claim their overtime entitlements.
