European court backs Ireland on junior doctor hours

The European Court of Justice has dismissed a case brought against Ireland by the European Commission in relation to the working hours of junior hospital doctors.

The court rejected all three grounds of complaint made by the commission and awarded costs for the long-running action to Ireland.

The central finding of the court was that protected working time of non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs), when they are engaged in educational and training activities and are not available for work, does not constitute working time.

The Department of Health, which has welcomed the judgment, says this finding will help support Ireland's compliance with the European Working Time Directive, which puts limits on the long working hours of doctors.

The department says the finding will be incorporated into a detailed implementation plan being prepared by the HSE for achieving compliance with the requirement to limit NCHDs’ average working week to a maximum of 48 hours.

The commission had sought a declaration from the court that Ireland failed to fulfil its obligations under the directive, which also requires member states to ensure workers are entitled to a minimum of 11 hours of rest per 24-hour period.

No clear limit

In the hearing, it argued there was no clear limit to the total length of the working weeks for NCHDs, whose contract prohibited them working for more than 24 hours on site and says they should not be on call for 24 hours on more than a one-in-five day basis, except in exceptional circumstances.

Ireland admitted it had not been possible to achieve a situation of complete compliance with the directive but said this wasn’t because of a failure on its part to take necessary measures.

It maintained it was making “constant and concerted efforts” to achieve total conformity and dealt with all instances of non-compliances, including through the use of fines.

On Thursday, the department said it was committed to achieving full compliance with the 48-hour requirement as soon as possible. This will require reconfiguration of some services across hospital groups and the completion of new capital projects in paediatrics and maternity.

Although 750 additional NCHDs have been recruited, there are difficulties retaining and recruiting certain categories, especially in smaller hospitals without training posts, it pointed out.

Compliance with the directive currently stands at over 70 per cent and average working hours for NCHDs have fallen from 60 hours a week in 2009 to 51 hours at the end of last year.