In the interest of fairness, following recently linking to a blog questioning Health Minister Dr Daniel Poulter's comments about hours worked, I am linking to a response he gave to an Ipswich website.

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Dr Poulter writes, "Until the full introduction of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) in medicine for all medical specialities at the end of the last decade, I worked duty doctor rotas which resulted in me regularly undertaking 100 hour weeks.

"Although in theory, until the full introduction of the EWTD, the maximum number of hours a doctor could work in a single week was 91 hours (7 consecutive 13 hour shifts). The process of ensuring proper continuity of patient care through patient handovers to colleagues and being present on the morning consultant-led ward rounds for handing over patients admitted overnight meant that the reality for doctors like me, in some specialities was a working rota pattern involving regular 100 hour weeks.

"A typical obstetrics and gynaecology rota (as it appeared on the official rota) which I performed as a doctor as recently as 2009 was; 12 days of consecutive day shifts (including 7 days of 11.5 hour on call shifts) followed by two days off, followed by 12 further consecutive day shifts (including 7 days of 11.5 hour on call shifts), followed by 2 days off, followed by 7 consecutive 13 hour night shifts, followed by 6 days of compulsory rest and a week of training/annual leave (then working pattern repeats in a cyclical nature).

"This was a gruelling and tough medical work rota by anybody’s standards, notwithstanding the fact that patient handover meetings and required attendance on post admission patient ward rounds were not ‘counted’ as officially timetabled hours on the rota. The demands of ensuring proper patient care and continuity of care, required junior doctors, like me, to work 100 hour weeks as recently as 2009.

"Thankfully, the situation has now changed, but the introduction of the EWTD by the previous Government for all medical specialities has presented new challenges in terms of providing adequate training for doctors in some specialities and proper continuity of care for patients".