British Junior Hospital Doctors Assailed Over Emergency Care

LONDON —  Many of Britain’s junior hospital doctors are unable to give basic life support to patients in emergencies and the standards of reviving patients are “scandalously low,” the British Medical Journal reported Friday.

The Journal said almost half of the doctors tested in a London teaching hospital could not perform external cardiac massage and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a model.

Although 55% did succeed, the Journal said, none would have passed the advanced cardiac life support examinations held in the United States.

“Many house officers failed because they were literally unable to turn on the oxygen supply of a standard anaesthetic machine,” the Journal said. “Others, lacking this vital skill, even attempted to unscrew the oxygen bottle from the trolley, which could have resulted in the cylinder falling from the machine.”