The price to pay: perversions in (cardio)thoracic surgical training.

The extraordinary actuality of the article of Lim and Tsui [1] and, more importantly, the reflection of Mestres et al. [2] are my excuses for this letter. Being a general thoracic surgeon in Hungary with significant senior post experience in UK my reflection is of a mate fighting in the same trench in the next platoon. As failed professionals [3] we are getting what we deserve. Pure logic dictates if Sunday is like any other day of the week, than 12 AM and 12 PM are the same, too. The idea of shiftwork in hospital is the price what the medical profession has to pay for having kept the mouth shut when others were enforced to do what is against biology and psychology. (Leave cultural and religious aspects out.) Now, its showtime, for us. Medicine is just like any other service butmore expensive, for them. We cannot measure our juniors by our standards in a world that had turned upside down. They should be entitled to the same recreational time as their contemporaries—even if we ourselves had sacrificed our own in the past. Who can demand significantly more of our trainees than other professions playing in the same league, which offer more income and prestige? We did not make it clear, that while in medicine it is enough to read and see, in surgery, due to its craftsmanship features, manual activity is a sine qua non of learning. Working hours should refer to ‘working only’ people. To my best knowledge there are no learning time directives so far. Let the two be separated to get a clear picture.