Dr. Rachel McNamara:

What was described is not an isolated or one-off incident in many of our careers. We have reports that up to 77% of NCHDs regularly experience this pressure when they have already been rostered beyond legal and safe limits and then the text comes through in the evening or at night that there is no option and locum cover cannot be obtained. They are told it is down to them to fill the shift or their colleagues will be put under enormous pressure.

On the question of how it impacts on patient safety, of course it does. People are going around exhausted. It is highly unsafe. I have worked shifts where I have barely been able to keep my eyes open. That is commonplace. We have people who start work on a Friday morning and do not finish until the following Monday. They work 72 hours. Some of that might be at home but often they have just crawled into bed and are asked to get out of it again. It is not for us to comment on individual cases. That is for various inquests and ongoing investigations to decide.