I GRIEVE for Mr Brian Connelly, who has lost his beloved daughter ("Grieving father:

junior doctor hours require urgent review", The Herald, December 9) but I consider that his comments about long hours miss a key issue.

When I was a junior doctor, more than 40 years ago, the hours were as long -then and now a medical week is 168 hours -but I and my colleagues had one crucial advantage. We were each allocated a room close to our work location for the duration of the post, typically six months: sparsely furnished but with a bed, and serviced (sheets changed and room cleaned at appropriate intervals). There was no question of coming off duty exhausted and driving away: no need and no desire.

Furthermore, in the course of a long shift - the longest I recall was from 8am on Friday until 6pm the following Monday(82 hours) - I could take brief naps in my room but be readily available as and when required.

Thus the key issue is not about junior doctors' hours but about junior doctors' accommodation.

Where have these rooms gone? Closed down for financial reasons or occupied by an accursed expanded management which has its focus upon meeting targets and related non-consolidated payments (bonuses to the rest of us). It appears that junior doctors, like front-line infantry, are an expendable commodity.

I consider that failure to hold a fatal accident inquiry into this health and safety issue is incompetent and indefensible, an insult to Dr Lauren Connelly and her family and an opportunity missed to highlight and hopefully rectify flaws in the system.

Dr William Durward.

20 South Erskine Park,

Bearsden.

I SYMPATHISE with the father of Dr Lauren Connelly and admire his selflessness in speaking out about the excessive working times that led to his daughter's tragic and untimely death. Your editorial ("Time for honesty on doctors' hours", The Herald, December 9) has it exactly right. The European Working Directive (WTD), which states that no-one should be forced to work more than 48 hours in a week, is being abused in Scotland.

We introduced the Working Time Directive in the European Parliament as a health and safety measure to prevent exactly this type of tragedy, not to cause it.

The problem does not exist as a result of the WTD but because of the way it was transposed into United Kingdom law. The UK Conservative Government did not want the law enacted in the UK as it legislated on hours worked,for health and safety reasons and guaranteed holiday pay in the UK for the first time.

Like all European Union directives, this is an instrument which requires member states to enact its provisions in national legislation. Although the directive applies to all member states, in the UK it is possible to opt out of the 48-hour working week and work longer hours.

After the 1993 negotiations, when the directive was agreed (after an 11-1 vote) the UK Conservative Employment Secretary David Hunt said: "It is a flagrant abuse of community rules. It has been brought forward as such simply to allow majority voting - a ploy to smuggle through part of the Social Chapter by the back door. The UK strongly opposes any attempt to tell people that they can no longer work the hours they want."

France passed stricter legislation, limiting the maximum working week to 35 hours.

After this tragic death we need to revisit the way the EU legislation has been transposed in the UK and come up to the higher standard of our neighbours and partners.

David Martin, MEP,

1 Avenue du Président Robert Schuman,

Strasbourg.