The results of a ballot of junior doctors are today expected to show that they have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action in a bid to force the HSE to introduce a maximum working week of 48 hours.

Under the EU's European Working Time Directive (EWTD), junior doctors, also known as non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs), are legally required to work no more than 48 hours per week. However, according to the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), many work in excess of 70 hours per week, with some working shifts of up to 36 hours.

Such shifts are also in breach of employment contracts negotiated with the HSE by the IMO.

The organisation has continually emphasised that this is unsafe for the health of both the doctors involved and their patients.

Last month, junior doctors were balloted on industrial action as part of an escalation of the IMO's '24 No More' campaign, which aims to stop the HSE from routinely making them work more than 24 hours at a time.

At the time of the balloting, IMO assistant director of industrial relations, Eric Young, insisted that the health service was at ‘crisis point' and that the ‘circle of illegal and dangerous working hours had to be broken'.

"It is not acceptable that the HSE continues to blatantly breach the law of the land and to think that they can do so with impunity. The HSE and the Government have talked for years about fixing this appalling situation, but it is clear that they will only do it if they are forced to," he commented.

While the exact form of action to be taken has not yet been decided, speaking to Irishhealth.com recently, IMO junior doctor chairman, Dr John Donnellan, admitted that all-out strike action was on the cards.

"It goes against your training and your mindset as a doctor to go on all-out strike. But NCHDs are completely fed up. In what little engagement there has been with HSE management on this issue, no solution has been offered to the working hours issue," he explained.

Furthermore, following a meeting between the IMO and the HSE on August 29, Dr Donnellan admitted that junior doctors were ‘now resigned to having to take strike action in the coming weeks'.

He described the meeting as a ‘failure' because the HSE did not make any proposals to address the concerns of junior doctors.

"It would be one thing if the HSE made proposals with which we disagreed. However the fact that they didn't have any proposals to make at all shows the contempt with which they treat NCHDs," he said.

For more on why junior doctors are planning to strike, click here