Patients could be put at risk by trainee doctors who are exhausted before they even start work, experts have warned.
A poll has revealed almost a quarter of junior doctors say they feel 'burnt out' because of their job.
And another third say they are already exhausted before they start a shift.
A fifth of the junior doctors say they often feel tired at work, while half of trainees regularly work longer hours than they are signed up to do.
The General Medical Council (GMC), which carried out the poll of 70,000 doctors, said it paints a picture of long and intense working hours, heavy workloads and the challenges of frontline medical practice.
The findings come after experts claimed last month that doctors who work long hours are significantly more likely to make mistakes when treating patients.
Doctors' working conditions are affecting their training experience and their personal wellbeing, the council warned.
The GMC's poll gathered responses from almost 52,000 doctors in training and 19,000 of their trainers from across the UK.
Almost a quarter of trainees – 24 per cent – and one in five trainers said they feel burnt out because of their work.
And almost a third of trainees – 32 per cent – said they are often or always exhausted in the morning at the thought of another day at work.
Around half of doctors in training and their trainers said they always or often felt worn out at the end of their working day.
Some 40 per cent say their workload is 'heavy or very heavy'.
Some junior doctors say they miss opportunities to do training because they work such long hours.
Just last month experts warned that doctors working 12 hour days could be affected in the same way as being drunk. A
fter working for 12 hours in a row doctors are more than a quarter – 27 per cent – more likely to make a mistake than someone who has worked eight hours, according to Dr Satish Jayagopal, a surgeon from Salisbury.
