POLICE have questioned junior doctors at a hospital about their shift patterns and rest breaks as part of an investigation into the death of a young medic in a car crash as she drove home from her first night-shift.
Lauren Connelly was days away from her 24th birthday when her Vauxhall Corsa careered off the M8 motorway and struck a tree last September, as she returned from work at Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock.
Her death prompted calls for an inquiry into shift patterns among junior doctors after friends said she had voiced concerns about being exhausted and overworked in the lead-up to the crash.
Now it has emerged officers from Strathclyde Police have spoken to other junior doctors at the hospital about their working hours and rest breaks as part of their probe into Dr Connelly's death.
A source said: "A number of junior doctors have been have been interviewed by the police. As well as asking about Lauren, they were asking about rotas, sleeping arrangements for on-call doctors and asking whether staff had ever been forced to lie about their hours."
Dr Connelly, from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, lost control of the car near Bishopton in Renfrewshire before it careered down an embankment and ploughed into a tree. She was pronounced dead at the scene. She had just come off duty following a night-shift when the accident happened at around 9.40am on September 17. She had only been in her post for a few weeks.
Police investigating the crash at the time would not be drawn on whether Dr Connelly could have fallen asleep at the wheel.
Questions were raised last year following the results of a General Medical Council survey checking compliance rates among NHS hospitals across the UK in relation to the European Working Time Directive, legislation that came into force in 2009, which limits a doctor's working week to 48 hours.
Inverclyde Royal was among the hospitals that fared worst in the survey, where half of respondents said they felt under pressure to lie about their working hours. The hospital scored 17 out of 100 for compliance with EU working-time regulations, one of the lowest scores of any hospital in the UK.
Dr David Reid, depute chairman of the Scottish Junior Doctors Committee, said he welcomed an investgation highlighting the problems of excessive hours among young medics.
He said: "The vast majority of rotas in Scotland are compliant but there are a few here and there which for whatever reason are not. This could be because of someone suddenly going off sick or because of maternity cover.
"Some rotas are worse than others, such as in an accident and emergency unit, which could be more antisocial than a general medical ward because of the unpredictability of the cases it handles.
"But I would hope if any junior doctor was being subjected to harassment or bullying about recording the actual hours they work, they would contact the BMA. Any attempt to get them to do anything else constitutes fraud."
A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) said "junior doctors work within compliant rotas as per the new deal for junior doctor arrangements. NHSGGC is also focused in ensuring doctors take appropriate rest breaks during their shifts."
A Strathclyde Police said they could not comment on a continuing investigation. He said: "We are not in a position to say who we have or haven't interviewed in the Lauren Connelly case because it is still an ongoing investigation."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article