Dr. Niamh Humphries:

The doctors who are in Australia are doing the same job. They are still hospital doctors, they are still working in a health system and they are still delivering healthcare, but they are doing so in a much more sustainable way. They are working reasonable hours at approximately 40 hours per week and that frees them to have a work-life balance. That is something that is denied to many doctors in the Irish health system, unfortunately. The working hours should be restricted in the same way they are for truck drivers or any other worker. Under the European working time directive, they are supposed to be restricted to 48 hours per week, but very few of the hospital doctors we spoke to are working 48 hours per week in the health system.