Scarlett McNally: In praise of part time doctors

After decades as a full time surgeon, during which I didn’t go to a dentist for a seven year stretch and forgot to MOT my car twice, I finally went part time in 2015. My mother’s dementia meant that I needed to manage solicitors, builders, carers, and other tasks as her court appointed deputy, so I dropped my working hours to a nominal 36 hours a week. Nowadays I couldn’t manage my health and other commitments without being part time, nor would I manage the intensity of the work expected. Yet the NHS’s organisation of its workforce and culture needs to change, as it encourages other NHS staff and the mainstream press to be scathing about part timers.1The current system still seems set up around a bygone era when most doctors were men, with a partner managing home life. Now over half of graduating doctors are women. But society hasn’t…
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