Epimetheus' responsibility: resident working hours and system redesign.

Abstract

Pandora was a beautiful woman, sent to earth by Zeus with a box full of plagues and diseases to be used to maintain the existing power relationship between the Gods and mankind. If the title of the article on residents’ work hours is intended to suggest that the growing feminisation of the medical workforce in Western industrialised countries is the source of major quality problems, we want to object. It was Epimetheus—a man—who could not resist opening the box and therefore it seems only fair to call on all parties responsible for the design of our present health care systems to find a way to accommodate, for all professionals, implementation of work schedules that are societally acceptable and guarantee safety for our patients. In Western Europe the debate on the regulation of interns’ and residents’ work hours has been going on for several decades now. The 1980s witnessed several strikes and other forms of action through which junior doctors tried to reduce their work week that could exceed an average of 80–100 hours. As a result various European Union (EU) countries implemented national legislation. At the EU level, a major step was taken in November 1993 when the EU’s Council of Ministers adopted a directive to regulate certain aspects of the organisation of working time (93/104/EC). The basic objective …