Junior doctors are 'left in charge of up to 90 patients' and 'treated like cattle'
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Dangerous understaffing of NHS hospitals can be revealed today with four junior doctors reporting serious incidents every day.
A Mirror investigation has uncovered hundreds of safety reports showing rookie medics left in charge of up to 90 patients.
It follows a global report which found the NHS has among the lowest numbers of doctors out of 21 developed nations.
Junior doctors who have filed “exception reports” lay bare the extent of unsafe wards after ­sickness and workloads drag more senior medics away.
Freedom of Information responses from 55 hospital trusts have uncovered 551 reports lodged in the first year after their introduction.
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When the 95 trusts which refused to reveal their reports are factored in, the number is likely to be more than 1,500 reports on safety breaches.
Dr Jeeves Wijesuriya, chair of the BMA’s junior doctor committee, said: “These reports highlight where staff are being overstretched.
“Trusts have a duty to take action to ensure staff and patients are safe.”
“A report by the respected King’s Fund revealed last month Britain has 2.8 doctors per 1,000 people, below the average of 3.6 and barely half the number in Austria of 5.1.
The figures come as the Government faces fresh calls from the British Medical Journal to remove visa curbs preventing international doctors from working in the UK.
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Exception reports note unsafe working hours negotiated by the British Medical Association in 2016 for junior doctors.
The rookies report being treated like “cattle”, with no time to eat or go to the toilet during nights shifts.
One at Colchester Hospital NHS Trust said: “I was made to cover almost 90 patients. If a handful of patients fell sick I wouldn’t be able to treat them properly."
At Derby Teaching Hospital one medic said: “I was left unsupervised. This was my first day on the ward. I felt wholly unsafe.”
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The Department of Health said: “We want to be the safest health system in the world.
“We’re backing this with the biggest increase in training places in NHS history.”
A damning NHS report into its worst winter has revealed more than 2,600 patients have waited more than a year for treatment.
Trusts in England ended the financial year with a deficit of £960million.