Which Hospitals Overworks Junior Doctors The Most?

Its official! In a national survey, the NHS Trust with the highest proportion of overworked junior doctors was....... (drum roll)...... Milton Keynes General Hospital!! Source: Healthcare Commission Staff Survey 2003/2004)

The survey showed that 41% of junior doctors questioned at Milton Keynes said that they worked longer than their contracted hours.

But Milton Keynes is not only the only NHS Trust that deserves to be named & shamed!

North-West London Hospitals, Surrey & Sussex Healthcare, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals & Northampton General Hospital.

All the above-named NHS Trusts had among the lowest proportion of junior doctors complying with their contracted hours according to the survey. The results showed that over 30% junior doctors who responded in these NHS Trusts felt overworked! Read the survey results online!

Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to find out about the working conditions in hospitals we were going to work in or thinking of applying to?

Well Dr Nick Riviera says, dream no more! Such a site does exist! The Healthcare commission is an independent, organisation funded by the Department of Health. Its annual staff survey covers hundreds of NHS Trusts with thousands of staff surveyed.


The survey covers areas including job satisfaction, job pressure, bullying from seniors, teamwork, training & life-work balance. You can read the results for doctors in each NHS Trust across the country. Best of all, its free & public access!

I also recommend reading the Clinical Governance Review for individual NHS Trusts as they provide very revealing information. For example, here are some excerpts from the Clinical Governance Review for Ashford & St Peter's NHS Trust (2001):

"The trust is having difficulties in achieving the New Deal for junior medical staff (SHO), and state they are 68% compliant."

"There were a number of concerns raised regarding consultant support and supervision of junior medical staff. We were told on a number of occasions of a lack of support, both during the day and when problems arise on call."

" Some junior doctors reported difficulties in accessing training at this time due to the pressure of work."

Dr Nick feels that the Healthcare Commission website is very much underused by junior doctors. And its quite obvious why some hospitals are not too keen on doctors reading this kind of incriminating material!

Read individual reports of NHS Trusts! Instructions: Select the NHS Trust you want then click on Staff Survey or Clinical Governance Review.