Hospital doctors in Spain are routinely required to work 24-hour shifts, sometimes consecutive, without guaranteed compensatory rest.

Omissions

• The legal framework (Spanish law transposing the EU Working Time Directive) does guarantee minimum rest — at least 12 hours daily and 36 hours weekly — so compensatory rest is legally guaranteed but frequently not applied in practice, rather than being absent from the law.
• A reform of the Estatuto Marco announced by the Spanish Ministry of Health in 2024 (and advancing through the Council of Ministers/Parliament as of December 2025) reduces the maximum on-call shift from 24 to 17 hours; this context is omitted by the speaker.
• Most available sources date from 2021-2025; no source confirms the exact state of play as of the 17 September 2026 session date, and the Estatuto Marco reform may have altered the 24-hour norm in the interim.
• The 'sometimes consecutive' element is only indirectly supported (debate over limits of on-call shifts per month), not directly documented by an official source.

Sources

• PrimaryLa Moncloa (Spanish Government press release on the new Estatuto Marco)"La guardia pasa, por ley, de 24 horas a 17 horas. · Las libranzas o descansos obligatorios, previos y posteriores a la guardia, no podrán generar..."
• PrimaryMinisterio de Sanidad (Spanish Ministry of Health)"Por primera vez, las guardias médicas se limitan a un máximo de 17 horas, siete menos que en la actualidad y sin pérdida retributiva, mientras que la jornada..."
• AcademicSánchez-Martínez et al., 'Resident physician duty hours, resting times and European Working Time Directive' (Human Resources for Health, PMC)"According to Spanish Law [2], doctors cannot work for more than 48 h per week and need to have resting times per day (at least 12 h), per week (at least 36 h)"
• SecondaryiSanidad"La reforma introduce una reducción en la duración de las guardias, que pasarán de 24 a 17 horas, afectando a todos los profesionales sanitarios"
• SecondarySur in English (citing Spanish Health Ministry announcement)"Health minister Mónica García announced last week a reform of the statute for health professionals to reduce 24-hour medical shifts to 17 hours"
• SecondaryCESM (Confederación Estatal de Sindicatos Médicos)"Adicionalmente está la jornada complementaria -guardias-, en turnos de 17 o 24 horas que se cumplen de lunes a viernes no festivos de 15.00..."; article title: "La legislación sobre jornada laboral de residentes no está mal, el problema es que no se aplica"