Coffee advice bitter pill for Aussie docs
| September 8, 2009 | 10:01 AM
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Here’s a jolt.
Overworked Australian doctors are steaming after being told to guzzle six cups of coffee a day to stay awake on the job.
The Queensland Health Department issued the potent guideline after a recent survey suggested that 88 percent of doctors in the northeastern Australian state’s public hospitals are fighting dangerous fatigue levels. That news is pretty dark and strong.
The health department recommends that the doctors gulp down 400 milligrams of caffeine a day, the equivalent of up to six cups of java. Or six drops of Starbucks.
A union representing the bleary-eyed doctors doesn’t think the idea’s so hot. In fact, it finds the scheme pretty hard to swallow. The union says the doctors are being forced to work up to 72 hours without a break and that putting their caffeine levels off the charts is only going to make things worse.
It sounds like another case of government sludge.
Read more at ABC News (Australia).
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