Trainee doctor at Beaumont Hospital, Libby Ennis, who recorded an audio diary of one of her shifts

A TRAINEE surgeon has revealed how she regularly works 30-hour shifts, forcing her to choose between sleeping and eating afterwards.

Dr Libby Ennis (28), a senior house officer in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, has recorded a stark and revealing audio diary which highlights how exhausted junior doctors are left to care for patients.

She documented her draining shift and told how she made a potentially serious blunder as she struggled to concentrate during another gruelling schedule a week earlier.

The weary young medic commented: "It's 10 to six on Saturday morning . . . I haven't had anything to eat since about half three on Friday afternoon.

"At this stage, the debate is between eating . . . or sleep. I think I'm going to choose sleep."

The Portarlington native said she loved her job but, like thousands of her colleagues, could no longer endure the energy-sapping marathon shifts which were putting the health of doctors and patients at risk.

Speaking into a microphone, she described her ordeal, thoughts and emotions, which were aired on Newstalk's 'Breakfast' show yesterday.

She recalled how a lapse in concentration led her to make a potentially serious mistake.

CHAOS

"I had taken a blood sample on somebody we were admitting for theatre the next day and obviously we want to have blood on standby if we need to give them a blood transfusion.

"It's a very particular form. You have to be careful, because you want the right blood going to the right person.

"I was about 30 hours into a shift and I used the wrong sticker for the wrong form.

"I went down and said I was incredibly tired, but this is what every single doctor at the hospital has to do, so they weren't taking it as a reason."

The expose comes as junior doctors in the Irish Medical Organisation begin a ballot for industrial action tomorrow which could see chaos in hospitals in the autumn.

The doctors should only be working 48 hours a week, but many are still clocking up more than 70, despite a promise by the HSE that improvements would be made from June.

Irish Independent