Stressed doctors call for shorter hours

PUBLIC HEALTH workers yesterday demanded better conditions and protection of workers’ rights after at least three doctors were said to have died from infections in hospitals amid heavy workloads.
The group of doctors and nurses aired their grievances at a press conference, calling on the Public Health Ministry to reform its human resource management system to protect healthcare workers from working excessive hours and ensure they have adequate legal rights.
Medical Council of Thailand committee member Dr Cherdchoo Ariyasriwattana said that after the deaths of the young hospital doctors as a result of overwork, the public had become aware of a chronic problem in Thai public health, which must be solved now.
“The claim by a high-ranking officer in the Public Health Ministry that no doctor works more than 24 hours is 
 totally wrong. In reality, the public hospital doctors work very hard for unacceptably long hours. Some have to work up to 40 shifts per month. Compare that to normal workers, who work eight hours for 20 to 22 days per month,” Cherdchoo said.
“The extraordinarily hard and long working hours that doctors face is confirmed by academic research, which shows up to 90 per cent of interns worked more than 80 hours per week.”
She said that such hard work not only caused healthcare workers to work inefficiently and increase the chance of them making a mistake while treating patients – it also put their health and welfare in danger.
Dr Oraphan Methadilokul, a medical law expert, said the rights and safety of public health workers must be protected, as it was clear that overwork led to the recent deaths of doctors while on duty.
“We should have a law to protect public health workers’ rights, which satisfies the international standard, such as limited working hours, proper welfare, and adequate compensation for the workers,” Oraphan said.
She stated that the cases of doctors dying from infection in hospital could be easily prevented, if they were allowed sufficient rest.

This month, two young doctors were confirmed as having died from respiratory infections at work – Dr Thapakorn Thongkuea, 30, who worked at Lam Plai Mat Hospital, and Dr Pichaorn Phongprasert, a 25-year-old intern.
Oraphan also said the Public Health Ministry’s human resource management system should be separated from the Office of the Civil Service Commission, in order to let the ministry manage its workforce efficiently according to the national public health situation.
Dr Withawat Siriprachai, a former director of Koh Lanta Hospital and administrator of the Facebook fanpage “Drama Addict”, disclosed that health problems through hard work drove him to quit his career as a doctor in the rural area.
“Last year I felt that my health was bad, as I was often tired during work, so I had a check-up and found out I had serious diabetes. At that time, I realised that if I did not take care of myself, I would surely die. So I asked for one month’s sick leave, which was denied. That is why I resigned,” Withawat said.
Withawat said that the public could also help solve the workload problem at public hospitals. Due to a lack of preventive healthcare knowledge, many went to see a doctor for minor ailments.