The hours are, to some extent, imposed by the various medical governing bodies either directly or by artificially restricting the supply of doctors. These bodi

The hours are, to some extent, imposed by the various medical governing bodies either directly or by artificially restricting the supply of doctors. These bodies are composed largely of doctors so the problem is to some extent self imposed. In the UK doctors are not governed by the working time directive because the UK negotiated an opt out so hospital doctors work ridiculous hours. As far as I can tell this problem does not exist to the same degree elsewhere in Europe.