Neurosurgical trainees operative experience before and after introduction of the New Deal for junior doctors

To compare operative experience before and after implementation of the New Deal to reduce junior doctors working hours, operative data was audited over a 6-month period. The three registrars with national training numbers in our unit were placed on two virtual working patterns to determine what their operative experience would have been over that 6-month period. Comparison with a 1980s trainee over a similar period was also made. Trainees on a 1:3 rota would have performed more emergency operations [32 (28 - 38)], than those on a partial shift [1:6 with following day off, 16 (13 - 23)]. Particular examples include trauma craniotomies 13 (9 - 15) versus 6 (3 - 11) and CSF diversion, 9 (2 - 13) versus 4 (2 - 7). Although trainees on a 1:3 on call rota would have had more emergency operative experience over the same period of time, less common procedures, such as lumber decompression for cauda equina syndrome, were equally distributed between both groups. Trainees doing the partial shift would have lost 18 (12 - 24) elective cases over the same period as a result of enforced absence following periods of duty. These included posterior fossa, complex spinal, benign and rare cranial procedures. The increasingly common option of employing juniors on a full shift rota would have an even greater impact on training. Trainees are unavailable for elective training on night shift and then for a compensatory period afterwards, doubling the time spent away from formal surgical training. Indiscriminate reduction in working hours by enforced absence for compensatory rest has a potentially deleterious impact on elective training. By reducing the out of hours commitment trainees have a reduced, but possibly acceptable, exposure to emergency neurosurgery without impact on elective training.