Cappuccio response to correspondence.
Sir,

In reply to Dr Dobson ' s comments, the Traditional rotas in each individual doctor reflect common practices across the country, that do not always comply with the non-binding guidelines cited. We state in the paper that a 56-h working week is based on an average calculated over 6 months, as permitted by the European Working Time Directive (EWTD), and make the point very clearly that the ranges are more informative, revealing extremes of bad practices. We agree that the differences in the rotas would have contributed to the differences seen in error rates, which was the objective of the study. We did analyse data in the former 6 weeks and the latter 6 weeks and found no differences in error rates, although statistical significance was not achieved due to reduced power in sub-groups (data not shown but referred to in the text). We would have preferred not to have incurred a schedule change mid-way but this was a pragmatic real-world trial and we felt obliged to address the concerns raised. We are reasonably confident, however, …