THREE QUARTERS of the shifts worked by NHS Tayside junior doctors comply with legislation limiting their working hours, due to come in to force next August.

The local position is well ahead of the Scottish average where just 51% of junior doctors’ shifts comply with the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) of a maximum 48-hour working week.

News of the overall Scottish figure was given to Marlyn Glen, the Dundee-based MSP, in a letter of reply on the subject from health secretary Nicola Sturgeon.

In the reply, Ms Sturgeon said, “Delivering sustainable safe services with the reduced hours available to junior doctors and the need to provide good training for them means that service delivery will have to change and adapt.

“To facilitate this and to enable NHS Scotland to comply with the legal requirements, other staff are being trained in new roles, like night nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants and the Hospital At Night approach which is being introduced across Scotland, including Tayside.”

Regarding junior doctors’ training programmes, Ms Sturgeon said, “These training programmes, introduced under Modernising Medical Careers, will deliver more flexible and responsive training programmes that are competency-based, rather than time-based, which makes training more compatible with the working time regulations through a structured and managed approach to medical education.”