Most of the issues mentioned in the article and the included email are concerning, however they also oddly seem to be common in many places across the globe. The surgeon mentioned was in Australia, I have seen these issues first hand in the Netherlands and am aware of very similar of the first 2 out of 3 issues (caused by overwork/understaffing/over-fatigue etc) in Belgium, Germany, the UK, India and god knows how many other places.
However, fields like aviation have strict workload limits. You cannot be on call/duty for too long because fatigue kills. Issues like alarm fatigue are studied by agencies, and folks at Boeing/Airbus then implement the findings.
The question is, why is it okay for medical professionals to wear themselves down to the bone (sometimes literally, like in this article), while some other professions take care to avoid it?
(Edit/PS: I added a fairly detailed self-reply below on what I think are some of the common arguments (like on the number/availability of doctors) and why they don't really fly, pun not intended.)
However, fields like aviation have strict workload limits. You cannot be on call/duty for too long because fatigue kills. Issues like alarm fatigue are studied by agencies, and folks at Boeing/Airbus then implement the findings.
The question is, why is it okay for medical professionals to wear themselves down to the bone (sometimes literally, like in this article), while some other professions take care to avoid it?
(Edit/PS: I added a fairly detailed self-reply below on what I think are some of the common arguments (like on the number/availability of doctors) and why they don't really fly, pun not intended.)