Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad has directed departments to cap the weekly duty hours of junior residents and interns at 48 hours, introducing structured shifts and one full weekly day off after concerns over excessive workloads and doctors’ mental and physical health.
The circular, dated October 27, instructs all heads of departments to strictly implement and monitor the new schedule. Under the duty pattern, junior doctors will work two 12-hour shifts a week, while duty on the remaining four working days will be limited to six hours a day. Each junior resident and intern must also receive one uninterrupted day off every week.
OGH superintendent Dr Rakesh Sahay said the hospital had found no uniformity in workload and duty hours between departments. Junior doctors and their parents had submitted representations seeking regulation of working hours, he told Deccan Chronicle.
“Some departments have heavy workloads while others have less work. It is better to have a rational and uniform system in which work is divided among everyone,” Sahay said.
The directive requires department heads to review and submit revised monthly duty rosters to the superintendent’s office by the 28th of every month. Attendance must be monitored by the unit chief or a faculty representative, creating a formal administrative record of whether the schedules are being followed.
The move follows concerns among postgraduate medical students about prolonged duty hours. N. Chandrakanth, president of the OGH Junior Doctors Association, said the unwritten practice had been to make junior doctors work for as long as 72 hours. In departments such as orthopaedics, junior residents sometimes worked beyond 72 hours without a clear schedule for rest or sleep, he said.
Chandrakanth said the revised system would allow departments to plan shifts and distribute work more evenly. The association has urged all departments to implement the norms and called on other government hospitals to adopt a similar system.
The change also follows a suicide reported four months ago, according to Chandrakanth. The source report does not provide further details about the incident. The association has linked the broader concern over duty hours to the physical and mental well-being of junior doctors and interns.
Telangana Medical Council member G. Srinivas described the initiative as consistent with relevant National Medical Commission postgraduate medical education regulations and Government of India guidelines. N. Karthik of HRDA also welcomed the decision, saying that regulating duty hours could help prevent burnout and support better patient care.
For the hospital, the immediate implementation challenge will be to maintain coverage across departments while ensuring that the 48-hour cap, rest day and roster-monitoring requirements are applied consistently. The circular places responsibility on heads of departments, unit chiefs and faculty representatives, with monthly rosters due at the superintendent’s office by the 28th of each month.
