Patricia Andrés, the doctor who has obtained the best grade in the MIR exam this year, has stated that she has chosen dermatology to “be happy and not get burned”, in reference to the fact that it is one of the few specialties where doctors are not obliged To make 24 hour on-site guardswhich means less wear and more chances of reconcile work and personal life. In fact, the medical discomfort With these marathon shifts it is getting better and this week the sector has attacked the possibility of increasing the age up to which they are obliged to do these complementary days from 55 to 60 years.
In the midst of this controversy, two doctors They explain in EL PERIÓDICO what their guards are like, how many they do per month and what health care is like during those long days that are questioned by a majority of the sector, which demands that they become voluntary and 12-hour shifts.
Irene Bermell, anesthesiologist
“When your battery is low, they ask you for one hundred percent”
Irene Bermell (44 years old, lives in Barcelona) is an anesthetist at the Hospital de Bellvitge and performs two face-to-face shifts a month (when she was younger, four), usually in operating room The problem, he explains, is that after a certain hour they try to deal with only urgent cases. “In these unforeseen circumstances, the patient’s history is typically unknown, recommended tests such as electro or fasting have not been performed, and fewer staff are available to participate in the intervention.” For this reason, Bermell summarizes the guards thus: “When your battery is low, they ask you for one hundred percent“.
The anesthetist acknowledges that in those marathon days, where because there are complex cases, you cannot sleep, that is when the health professionals are “closer to the mistake because “the body asks you to rest”. Bermell has not committed any medical failure but he has missed “things” because after so many hours working “the level of care is not the same, even if you want to”.
The health company believes that if doctors always worked “in shifts”, their vital rhythm would get used to it, as happens with police officers or firefighters. However, they are “day workers” who suddenly one day have to be “24 hours active”. Although they are trained and develop “quick reaction capacity” if they are asleep and have to wake up, it is “difficult” and the following days take their toll. You only rest the day after the watch, when “you’re more irritable and it’s like lost time,” she explains.
Jesús Blázquez, pediatric resident
“I’ve been close to making a non-trivial mistake after 20 hours”
Of the two doctors consulted by EL PERIÓDICO, jesus blazquez (26 years old, lives in Madrid), a resident of Pediatrics at Hospital La Paz, is the one who does the most guard duty per month. “The normal is five,” he explains, which is one more than the limit recommended by the EU. But in Spain this limit is sometimes exceeded, especially by residents, who are the doctors who more days of 24 hours they carry out, in a mandatory way. “In the month of January I have worked 242 hours, having weeks of up to 77 hours in a double of Friday and Sunday on call,” he explains.
Related news
Jesus, who has the Twitter account ‘The guards? A shit’, considers that this work system, in which at most, especially if the call is made in the emergency room, sleep for about three hours and work 21, “Making a mistake is easier“. “I have been very close to committing some non-banal mistake after 20 hours of continuous work and I have seen in first person medical errors late at night, because your judgment is not the same if you are rested than if you are not and we are victims both doctors and patients“, he admits. The most common rulings, he clarifies, are about the prescription of medicines, having to calculate it based on the weight of the child. “Sometimes you have to check everything multiple times,” she says.
“It is true that in guard duty you learn a lot, you expose yourself to events that you would not see if you were not in the hospital. But I would prefer that they extend my training period by one year and not do these marathon days, because after a certain hour, already you don’t learn anything You only act as best you can”, he adds. Blázquez anticipates that, probably, when the training period ends, he will go to another country where, in addition to the fact that the salary is triple that of Spain, there are no 24-hour guards.