Its terrible when all those machines get turned off on Saturday and Sunday isnt it? I'm surprised the mortuaries can cope.

Lazy consultants! I've heard it all now.

Yeah we should work the doctors as much as possible. Tiredness isn't an issue here.



Just because one sector of the economy gets away with sh|tting on employees doesn't mean this should be extended everywhere.



A little off topic I know, but I'd advocate us going back to the weekend actually being a time when people can spend time with their families, not a workday.

I blame the pesky meddling EU and their 48 hour working week directive.

Doctors used to be able to clock up double them hours on full whack compared to the layabouts coming through in the medical profession nowadays.

You just can't get the staff!

Which HM Government opted out of for several sectors of public employee - NHS doctors being one such example.

I'd like to add the small aside that having attended a couple of court cases from the public gallery (no serious crimes), my respect for the way judges appeared to use common sense in applying benchmarks to sentencing was greatly increased.



The press will report the sensational aspects of a crime and the sentence, but I've seen a judge make every possible effort to get someone a non-custodial sentence in one case, where it did seem clear that there was genuine remorse and intent to turn things around on behalf of the defendant, and another where the same judge saw a serial offender with attitude and pushed his sentence towards the maximum.



Not saying they get it right in every case, but I think a lot of judges are far more connected to the "real world" than most people give them credit for - especially the nasty side of life, which they undoubtedly see a lot more of than most.

Far from me to doubt your earnest opinion but have you managed to run this theory through with Sal for official confirmation?

Fair play.

Must have been after 2010?

Nooooo - long time before then, when it was first introduced ten/fifteen years ago ?

?



[urlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10198367/EU-review-Doctors-get-trained-in-their-free-time-because-of-working-time-rules.html[/url

Actually there is a very strong correlation between death rates and weekends precisely because there is a lack of more experienced staff on at the weekend.



Many consultants work on a rolling rota at weekends but they cover a multitude of wards.

So one week you will have a brain specialist on duty, the following week a cardiac consultant. The problem is that there specialisms are not always the ones that are needed at a particular time.

EU W/Time regulations introduced 1998 and the software that we sell was capable of monitoring the rolling period of 17 weeks (or any term) at that time too - since then I have only ever been asked once to set it up for a client and as far as I am aware none of our thousands of clients have ever been reviewed, or at least they have never asked us how to provide the evidence necessary to prove they are complying.



Regulations that allow you to opt out = fekkin useless regulations.

Ok.

So were both right.

It was the implication that machinery stands idle at the weekend I was taking issue with. I've heard about the correlation you mention and can understand it tbh but it was the other bit of the post I was meaning

The LEGAL PROFESSION? Are you really that ignorant? Solicitors already provide 24/7/365 cover for police stations and whenever their clients are up, they are represented. I am sure there would be no problem with night courts IF those working in them got paid accordingly. But that won't happen. As Grayling and his incompetent ideologues are slashing costs and pay by the million. There is zero chance of them paying more money.



I simply don't understand why you would think that processing more cases using more hours wouldn't cost more money. Of course it would. British Industry can work 24/7 but they can charge what they like for it. You don't want to pay, the plumber / mechanic / whatever won't turn out. Crime isn't like that - most can't afford to pay and unless legal aid does, then overall it simply will not happen.



And as you know if you follow the system at all, where it is at the moment is barristers and solicitors resorting to strike action. Doesn't sound like a governemnt that's likely to be throwing any more money into the pot to me.





Sorry, but an article by a very well-heeled City firm about tax faud cases really is utterly irrelevant to this discussion!







Indeed. In fact, one of the most ridiculous criticisms you could level against the judges is that they “don’t live in the real world”. They spend all day hearing about, dealing with, analysing, reading reports on the most troubled, the worst offending, the mentally challenged, the poor and desperate,the violent, the professional criminals and in a lot of cases the dregs of society, case after case after case. Ironically, they live in (and have to confront) the “real world” about a thousand times more than most of us.

You want us to copy that hugely successful (irony alert) system?

Politicians make the law!



Sadly the judiciary have to apply it.



Says it all really

Perhaps you'd like half day closing on a Wednesday as well? Whilst you ponder the good old days, and those beastly conniving Union Officials who sold out your Birthright, look up ROTA. That should explain where you're going wrong re the doctors.

Yes. A drunken scrote locked up for 42 years as opposed to 4 means the roads and general population are a lot safer by a factor of 10.

If you're happy to pay for him to be locked up for 42 years, go for it.

Unfortunately, not just very expensive equipment stands idle at the weekend, so does entire operating theatres. It is good to see that Prof Bruce Keogh, and many Doctors to be fair, has recognised there is a long overdue need for working practices to change.



In your case, Doctor Rumples proscribes; [url=http://www.england.nhs.uk/2013/10/28/keogh-7ds/READ[/url....inwardly digest....repeat until you understand....with attention being focussed on the final two paragraphs.



The prognosis for enlightenment is mildly encouraging......

I think the fact that hospitals basically don't do doctors at a weekend is a true scandal.



But I don't see anyone persuading consultants to start doing routine operations on night shifts on a regular basis. You may sneer and diss them for that, but I express no opinion at all, save to say that it just ain't gonna happen any time soon.



A consultant does what he is obliged to do under his NHS contract, and then he goes off to earn some serious money in his private work, you know, private ops, consultations, medical reports etc. If you are going to oblige him to work nights say one week in three then he plainly cannot work in his private business that week and again, for just that reason, it can't be done.



Also if you are going to operate theatres for an extra 100 hours per week, where the feck is the money to do that coming from?

I am aware there are guidelines to follow, but to my mind the guidelines must be awry to result in sometimes lax and seemingly inconsistent sentences.



It's not just the sentencing. Someone who is jailed and later found to be innocent have no help from the system when they are let go in the same way a convicted fellon get's a parole officer, accomodation and help adjusting to life. The innocent person then get's slapped with a nice hefty bill for their board whilst in jail, whoever legislated that is frankly evil.

What I was highlighting with that example is the disparity between the two. How one justice system appears much tougher on sentencing.



Both acted recklessly, both caused a road traffic accident resulting in death. One caused one death, the other caused two. You can't really quantify the difference between the 2 incidents and the extra fatality in terms of years in jail. The simple point is, someone who acts recklessly and causes a fatality should be serving much longer than 5 years in jail. That's the bottom line.

Can't we have a system like Iran or Saudi Arabia?