Ireland is facing legal action in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) unless it presents measures to cut doctors’ working hours and harmonise them with EU law.
The European Commission put the Government on notice today that Irish doctors are potentially putting patients at risk by working, in some cases, 100 hour weeks - more than double the 48-hour maximum allowed.
“In Ireland's case, national law provides for limits to doctors’ working time, but in practice public hospitals often do not apply the rules to doctors in training or other non-consultant hospital doctors,” said the Commission in a statement.
“There are still numerous cases where junior doctors are regularly obliged to work continuous 36-hour shifts, to work over 100 hour in a single week and 70-75 hours per week on average, and to continue working without adequate breaks for rest or sleep.”
The Government has two months to respond to what the Commission called a “serious infringement” of the EU Working Time Directive, before to goes to the ECJ in Luxembourg.
The Working Time Directive, binding for doctors since 2004, specifies a maximum 48 hour working week on average, including overtime. The directive also allows a minimum 11 hours of uninterrupted rest each day as well as a minimum uninterrupted rest of 24 hours.
After highlighting the issue in Ireland two years ago, the commission said that changes promised by the Government had not improved substantially the situation of doctors. The “reasoned opinion” from the commission - the second stage of addressing infringements of EU law - could lead in the next stage to legal action, but a hearing would be at least two years away.
In over 90 per cent of infringement cases, the commission said that member states comply with their obligations under EU law before they go to court.
“Our wish would be that the Irish authorities take steps to make sure that Ireland complies with EU legislation,” said a Commission spokesperson.
The commission sent a similar warning yesterday to Greece where, it said, doctors working in public hospitals often have to work a 64-hour minimum working week and over 90 hours in some cases.
Neither Ireland nor Greece applied for exemptions or opt-outs from the Working Time directives.
The Department of Health acknowledged receipt of the reasoned opinion and said that, together with the HSE, would “examine the opinion and prepare its response within the required timeline”.