days for hospital interns

CHICAGO - Patients will be told when they're being treated by rookie doctors, who would get shorter shifts and better supervision under proposed work changes for medical residents.

The draft regulations aim to promote patient safety and reduce medical errors by enhancing work conditions for sometimes sleep-deprived junior physicians.

The proposal slightly revises regulations adopted seven years ago and would have the biggest impact on interns - new doctors in their first year of residency training programs in hospitals after graduating from medical school. They would be more closely supervised by experienced doctors, and the maximum length of their work shifts would be cut to 16 hours
Maximum work shifts would remain 24 hours for residents in their second year and beyond. Maximum work weeks would remain at 80 hours for all hospital residents.

All residents and their supervisors also would be required to explain their roles to patients and explain that supervisors are ultimately in charge of their care.

The proposal comes from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Dr. Thomas Nasca, the group's CEO, said the changes are needed to meet the main goals of graduate medical education - assuring patient safety while teaching new doctors professionalism and putting patients' needs above their own.
The draft rules, released Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, will be available for public comm

From The Director;
My concern: We are reducing the number of professional trained to give care when at the same time we are increasing the number of people who will need or be requesting care..
Who will fill the gap, not Doctors and Nurses,  we are already short of personnel in those professions.
We are facing the same problem experienced by nations with government controlled health care. 
Readers should be aware that in England, Germany and now Canada private practicing physicians are expected/encouraged to help the National Health Service get the job done.

Here at home UPS, FED Ex and others are doing well despite the fact that the US POSTAL SERVICE was created to perform those services

Why didn't we repair the system we had, near a century in the making and envied throughout the world, rather than replace it with a model of health care delivery that has failed everywhere it has been tried.
Reminds me of someone who got rid of a fine automobile because it had a flat tire

We must preserve and support the private practice of medicine if we hope to get the job done