Doctors should be included under labour laws protection
Doctor should be included under the labour law’s protection to prevent them from being further exploited, Taiwan Health Reform Foundation (THRF), a non-profit medical reform group said.Young resident doctors in Taiwan normally work 15 days round-the-clock each month, or 360 hours per month.
Often, young doctors have to work non-stop for over 30 hours. 'Excessive work time and workload not only impacts medical professionals’ health and safety, but also undermines patient safety,’ Lui Mei-chun, executive director of the foundation said.
Although no country has included medical professionals under the labour laws protection, nations such as United States have regulated that resident doctors are prohibited from working non-stop for longer than 24 hours, Lui said.
So far, no hospitals have discussed whether the current arrangements for doctors are reasonable, Lui said.
Source: The Central News Agency (CNA), 2 May 2008