One year after the reform of the working hours of interns, many establishments are struggling to comply. They could be subject to sanctions.
Medical interns are always overworked. In many hospital services, the 48-hour week is far from being respected, one year after the entry into force of the reduction in working time. Result: after long days and nights of work, future doctors have difficulty getting their days of recovery.
If the government had assured health establishments a certain leniency time to apply this new organization, today it is raising the tone. The Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, and the Secretary of State for Higher Education and Research Thierry Mandon, recall in a press release that “sanctions can be applied in the event of non-compliance with the safety rest” .
“A priority subject”
In an instruction released on Tuesday, they recall that the decree voted in March 2015 guarantees the application of safety rest after a guard, without any possible exemption. “Interns are an essential link in the care system. Respect for the safety rest of these young doctors is a priority subject and must be imposed on everyone, in town and in hospital. No violation of these rules should be tolerated, ”said Marisol Touraine.
For the recalcitrant establishments, the government recalls that the approvals of the services to train these young doctors can be suspended. “The law provides an essential guarantee for quality training for interns. Failure to comply with it calls into question this quality of training, in addition to the safety of patients and interns”, Thierry Mandon also underlined.
In fact, many interns are on the verge of professional exhaustion, others have already fallen over. According to the Union of Interns of Hospitals of Paris (SIHP), more than a third of interns are in burnout. Overwork that pushes them to make mistakes. In 2012 working time survey (1), the InterSyndicat National des Internes (ISNI) revealed that 15% of students had made medical errors in prescriptions, diagnoses or operative procedures the day after their call.
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