Hyderabad’s Osmania General Hospital introduces 48-hour weekly duty limit for junior doctors, interns

The Osmania General Hospital (OGH) in Hyderabad has directed all departments to restrict the weekly duty hours of junior residents and interns to 48 hours, citing concerns over their mental health, physical well-being and clinical efficiency.

In a recently issued circular, the hospital Superintendent instructed all heads of departments (HODs) to immediately restructure clinical duty rosters to ensure adherence to the revised working-hour norms. As per the circular, junior residents and interns should not be assigned more than 48 hours of duty in a week.

The revised schedule provides for two 12-hour shifts and four additional working days with a maximum duty period of six hours each. They must also be given one full, uninterrupted day off every week. The hospital administration stated that exhausting work schedules must be replaced with structured and reasonable duty shifts in accordance with medical education guidelines and clinical safety standards.

All HODs have been asked to personally review and approve the revised monthly departmental duty rosters and submit them to the Office of the Medical Superintendent by the 28th of every month. The circular also directs departments to strictly monitor the attendance of junior residents and interns through the respective unit chiefs or designated faculty representatives.