PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Doctors: Conditions of Employment (2 December 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of doctors working in NHS hospitals who do not have access to (a) rest facilities and (b) food and drink facilities during their shift.

Asked by:
Helen Hayes (Labour)

This information is not collected centrally.

It is the responsibility of employers to ensure that they comply with requirements to provide healthy and safe working conditions. The national contract for junior doctors contains specific provisions on access to food and drink and access to rest facilities; this includes that doctors on a night shift must have access to a space in which to take meals and other rest breaks and that arrangements should be made for accessing hot and cold food and drink outside the periods when restaurant facilities are open.

In addition the new contract for junior doctors contains a number of other provisions designed to ensure safe working hours, reducing the maximum number of hours a week that junior doctors can be asked to work and the number of consecutive night and long day shifts. These will be overseen in every trust by a Guardian of Safe Working Hours.

Answered by:
Philip Dunne (Conservative)
12 December 2016