Wife of suicide doctor claims 80-hour weeks 'drove him over the edge'

Published on Sunday 29 April 2007 00:07

A DOCTOR who committed suicide on a Highland mountainside was under huge pressure to complete his training to become a consultant before a deadline in November, police sources have revealed.

Dr David Hughes, whose body was found last week, was trying to achieve consultant status within the next few months and was under pressure to "cram in" as much work as he could before then.

NHS Lothian, which hired the father-of-three to work as an anaesthetist at St John's Hospital, Livingston, denied claims by his wife that he was working 80 hours a week and had been "driven over the edge".

But police sources said they had no reason to doubt her.

Junior doctors have also said some medics are under pressure to fake time sheets in order to prove themselves professionally without breaching strict rules on working hours brought in to ensure patient safety.

Hughes, a Surgeon Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy, was on secondment at St John's Hospital to complete his training as a junior doctor.

The 37-year-old served during the last Gulf War and was to have been sent back to Basra next January. He disappeared on April 18 and his body was found last week near Braemar, Aberdeenshire.

Yesterday, a police source said Hughes was under pressure to qualify by the end of the year because he wanted to become a consultant as quickly as possible, which would have seen his salary rise from around 40,000 a year to a minimum of 60,000.

"Consultant is the level the Royal Navy wants its top people to reach," the source said. "There is a great deal of competition and pressure to hit these targets because there are quite a few people aiming for the same prize but obviously only a few places."

The source added that Hughes' looming return to duty in Basra had added to his depression.

"It was the wounded which really affected him. He was seeing men and women in the prime of their lives with limbs missing and horrific wounds and it is obviously a very, very distressing sight."

His 34-year-old widow and their three children, who were living in Ministry of Defence accommodation in Colinton, Edinburgh, now face being made homeless by the death. She is expected to return to their hometown of Newton Abbot, Devon.

Dr Alan Robertson, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's Scottish Junior Doctors Committee said yesterday that some doctors were afraid to tell the truth about working illegally long shifts.

"When filling out monitoring forms some people may not be accurate. It's up to them what they write down. Some people may have pressure put upon them - the problem is people don't want to step forward."