I find myself almost hoping that some of the people posting above, with all your righteous indignation at the error over 900 hours, will find themselves in an operating theatre in the hands of an anaesthetist who is entering her 16th hour of continuous duty (that means real work, ie no breaks beyond 10 minutes, no rest, mostly no sitting down, not "duty" as understood in FTL), monitoring the life or death of a patient. An error of a few milligrams, if she makes it, might kill you. Probably will, in fact. If she loses her exclusive concentration on a large number of parameters monitoring your condition for more than 60 seconds, that too could be the end of you. She is doing this for the 5-15th time, or thereabouts, in this single duty period.
She is paid about $35K a year, is solely responsible for what she does, and will be thrown to the wolves if you die as a result of a moment's inattention or tiredness, by the surgeon, by her department boss and by the Trust (strange word) that employs her. People will howl for her blood, with your family in the lead.
She may also be out of a job later this year, or have to go overseas, because the Trusts find it cheaper, or rather are forced by Gordon Brown's cutbacks to employ badly-qualified foreigners instead of offering a career to those the Government has trained at huge public expense. (Ironic, that, isn't it, in the light of events?)
Now, there you go, that's over. Back to your private whingeing, chaps, about how tough your life is. Don't mind me. Just don't need an operation, or if you do, pay for it privately out of your allowances.
Sorry, not quite over. I really do hope that the cretin who posted
The junior doctor gets HOME after his 19hr shift, can eat proper meals and not experience climate/timezone changes.
may one day realise that when you have not eaten, rested or slept during the 19 hour shift, and have to start another one in 8 hours time, there is no time for proper meals and the benefit of not having time zone changes or climate changes is minimal. You simply buy a garage sandwich, eat it and collapse into bed. Or at least that's what the anaesthetist referred to above does. When you go into hospital for an operation or after an accident, don't forget to have a discussion with the doctors about your opinions, will you? They'll welcome your input.