Hyderabad's Osmania General Hospital caps junior doctors' duty at 48 hours a week

According to a report by the prominent newspaper 'The Hindu', Hyderabad-based Osmania General Hospital has issued instructions to all departments to cap the weekly duty hours of junior residents and interns at 48 hours. This major decision has been taken keeping in view concerns regarding the mental health, physical well-being, and clinical efficiency of doctors.

In a recently issued circular, the hospital superintendent has ordered all heads of departments, i.e., HODs, to immediately restructure clinical duty rosters to ensure compliance with the new working hour standards. According to this new circular, no junior resident or intern will be allocated duty for more than 48 hours in a week.

Under this revised schedule, two 12-hour shifts and four other additional working days have been fixed for doctors, with the maximum duration of duty on each day being six hours. In addition to this, a provision has also been made that all junior doctors and interns will be given one full day of uninterrupted leave without any restriction every week.

Following medical education guidelines and clinical safety standards, the hospital administration has clearly stated that instead of extremely exhausting work shifts, it is now imperative to implement systematic and rational duty shifts.

All departmental heads have been given special instructions to personally review the revised monthly departmental duty rosters, approve them, and submit them to the Medical Superintendent's office by the 28th of every month. The circular also directs that strict vigil be maintained on the attendance of junior residents and interns by the concerned unit chiefs or designated faculty representatives.