1. The daily life of a Mater Dei doctor

“Doctors work daily, including Saturdays, from 7.45am to 2.30pm. However most of us are at work at 7am to prepare ourselves, go through bloodwork results and deal with administrative duties,” they explained. 

“We normally end up leaving after 2.30pm since as one can imagine, it is not as simple as clocking out, but the priority is put on stabilising patients or not leaving insane workloads for the on-call staff.”

The rest of the hours are then covered by the on-call teams, also called duties or għases in Maltese.

The doctor explained that they sometimes work 30-hour shifts when they’re on call. This is because they work one shift from 7am to 2.30pm, another one between 2.30pm and 7.30am, and come into work the following day.

That means that some doctors work from 7am to 2.30pm the following day.

“Unfortunately, we do not get rest or off the next day, and you are at the mercy of the workload or seniors who sometimes feel bad for you and let you go home an hour early.”

“These on-call days can be as frequent as once every six days but sometimes, if colleagues are ill or the need arises, this goes up to once every two days.”

“You’re basically working for 30+ hours, going home to sleep, and coming back the next day to do it again. That reached up to 120 hours a week in extreme conditions like the COVID-19 pandemic.”

During the night portion of the on-call shift, doctors work alternating shifts to ensure that staff is always available for emergency situations. Shifts alternate with each group’s designated rest time of six hours, taken all at once or split in half.

2. “On bad days, we sleep around 1-2 hours”

However, on chaotic and busy days, doctors often rest for around one to two hours, less than half the recommended time.

“On bad days manage to sleep around one to two hours, on good days you sleep around four hours. And even when we do sleep, we’re usually woken up to care for a patient or tend to something urgent.”

Doctors are also often obliged to continue working beyond their shifts to cover for others who are either sick or tending to more pressing matters. The patient’s care, the doctor says, always comes first.

3. The burnout

“Of course, every doctor and health care professional tries their utmost to give the best medical service,” they expressed.

“Exhaustion and burnout erode compassion, for peers, students and patients.”

“It’s like a marathon, the longer the struggle and the more exhausted you are. You tend to focus on small tasks to get you through. One more blood to take, one more patient to see and tend not to think of the big picture.”

4. “This is how exhaustion kicks in”

“What nobody talks about is what goes on behind the scenes. It’s easy to quantify the hours at work, as they are just a number.”

However, the truth is that both doctors and most health practitioners have to go through a lot more hours of work throughout the day. And it’s even worse for freshly-graduated doctors who need to keep up with continued learning and building a portfolio.

“Apart from the insane workload, you have to take into consideration the responsibility one has on their shoulder. Taking care of acutely unwell patients 24/7, dealing with death and illness on a daily basis and facing relatives and patients who are not always easy to deal with.”

“This is how emotional fatigue and exhaustion kick in. Sometimes it is even impossible to take leave as there is no one else to take care of patients.”

“The irony is that we are told we should focus on our mental health, but we are not given the space to. Told to have a social life, when we have no time to and as we care for people’s family members with all our hearts, have no time to spend with our own.”

The doctor also said how the biggest problems are unfortunately set in stone, with many recommendations that were brought forward for change being shut down.

He still wholeheartedly expressed how he sees the majority of healthcare workers doing the utmost of their ability, amidst all the present limitations.

“Most health care workers go far and beyond their limitations for patient’s care, most often to the detriment of both their physical and especially mental health. In a system which is resource-limited, on both a physical and personal basis.”

Do you think doctors and health workers deserve better working conditions?