Working Time Directive

HC Deb 19 April 2004 vol 420 cc232-4W

Mr. Burstow

To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 17 March,Official Report, column 396W, on the Working Time Directive, if he will list the problems raised with him caused by the decisions of the European Court of Justice on the SIMAP/Jaeger cases; and if he will set out his Department's response to those representations. [164901]

Mr. Hutton

The two European Court of Justice decisions have raised particular problems for the National Health Service by ruling that residential on-call work, even if the doctor is rest trig or sleeping, has to be counted as work and also by stipulating that compensatory rest has to be taken immediately. This has made compliance with the Working Time Directive for doctors in training from August 2004 more difficult given the substantial reliance on resident on-call rotas to provide round the clock cover in acute services. These difficulties are most apparent in small isolated hospitals and some specialities.