Physician interns work approximately 240 unpaid overtime hours per year.

GPs work around 240 unpaid overtime hours a year, equivalent to a month and a half of unpaid work, and a third work 24-hour shifts, a survey published this Wednesday shows.

A retrospective, observational and cross-sectional study, supported by the Independent Doctors’ Union in collaboration with its National Commission of Medical Interns, aimed to assess the working conditions of young people undergoing medical internships.

It received 2,012 responses, representing 19.6% of the total number of trainees undertaking specialized training in September 2020, the year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As for paid overtime, the researchers emphasize that it represents the smallest portion of the total amount of overtime work performed by prisoners, “but even so, this amount is equivalent to 144 hours of overtime per year.”

The vast majority of inmates work in the emergency department on weekends and holidays, often forgoing time off to which they are legally entitled to in order to ensure the smooth functioning of the department to which they are assigned.

“This results in an average of two days off per month corresponding to approximately 192 hours per year,” the study says, highlighting that junior emergency doctors work 432 unpaid overtime hours annually (240 overtime hours added to 24 hours not worked). unpaid overtime), which equates to more than two and a half months of unpaid overtime per year.

According to the investigation, six medical interns left their internship, citing reasons including excessive workload, lack of overtime pay, excessive responsibility in the initial stages, and “bullying” during medical training.

Another finding from the study, which Lusa’s agency had access to, indicates that one in four prisoners work shifts in the emergency department without the presence of a medical specialist.

The study also shows that the most advanced trainee participants are those with the highest training costs: 40.8% incur costs exceeding €1,500 per year out of pocket.

The study, to be presented on Thursday at the Nova Medical School in Lisbon, points to regional differences in emergency shifts and overtime work done by interns, who make up about 33% of NHS doctors.

In conditions of urgency, prisoners in institutions in the Southern region are 1.38 times more likely to perform more than three hours of unpaid shift work, while in the Northern and Central regions the likelihood is 0.70 times lower when accounting for 20 hours of paid overtime work. Job.

The study said that since the proportion of doctors per 100,000 residents is higher in the Northern region, differences in overtime may be due to the level of physician shortages, which are higher in the Center and South compared to other regions.

According to the survey, overall autonomy to perform duties without the physical presence of a supervisor increases throughout the internship, with hospitals in the Southern region having the highest levels of autonomy compared to other regions.

The study concluded that trainees play a “vital role” in the NHS and that “without their contribution, patient care would be permanently and seriously compromised”.

“They work much more than the contracted 40 hours a week, often without pay, they have a high degree of autonomy in their practice, they invest very significant personal and financial resources in medical training, and devote little to no time to study while working. hours,” he emphasizes.

Given these findings, the researchers argue that “it is fundamentally important to invest in improving the working conditions and quality of postgraduate training for trainees” by giving them “the time and opportunity” to devote themselves to the training that should be included in the training program. internship program and not burden even more young doctors.

It also highlights the need for better human resource planning in the NHS, with a “particular focus on doctors”, to ensure a more balanced work schedule and avoid an increase in mental health problems among prisoners, “which further contributes to their dissatisfaction and loss of motivation leading to to their departure from social networks.”