A BMA investigation has found that more than 32,000 doctors’ shifts were unfilled in hospitals in London over six months last year.
More than 32,000 shifts, which should have been filled by doctors in hospitals across London, were not staffed over a six-month period last year, impacting patient safety.
Results from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted by the British Medical Association (BMA) showed that across 23 London Trusts, at least 32,576 shifts were offered to doctors but were not filled.
The BMA is warning that the large number of unfilled shifts across London trusts is unsustainable and is having a detrimental impact on patient care and on the remaining doctors who are working in increasingly understaffed and challenging shifts.
“I sent these Freedom of Information requests so that we would have the data to back up what doctors in London already know: we are untenably short-staffed. Every single one of those 32,000 unfilled shifts meant overworked doctors were left trying to do the work of multiple medics. Patients in London deserve doctors who can give them the time and energy they need,” said Shivam Sharma, London resident doctor and co-chair of the BMA North Thames regional resident doctors’ committee, who sent the Freedom of Information requests to all Trusts in London.
Overwhelmed doctors
“I recently did a night shift where there were two spots on the rota they didn’t manage to fill, so only one registrar and one senior house officer, seeing new patients coming in through A&E overnight,” said one resident doctor working at a North London Trust.
“We ended up having patients waiting all night to be seen because both doctors were so overwhelmed by new incoming patients. When you have multiple night shifts like this in a row you end up working in a way you simply can’t sustain.”
The BMA argues that the pay rates that London hospitals offer doctors to do extra shifts are capped lower than other parts of the country. This means shifts are going unfilled as pay rates are not competitive enough and often worse than those offered outside of the capital.
“It’s only common sense that if trusts abandoned the medical rate cap and paid these shifts more competitively, as trusts in other parts of the country can do, we would see fewer rota gaps and better-staffed hospitals,” said Sharma.
Doctors can join the Scrap the Cap campaign by signing up to the pledge and commit to stopping all extra-contractual work if BMA London calls for it to support negotiations with London NHS trusts.
