Public doctors angry with their heavy workload yesterday announced a campaign to push for standard working hours, an arrangement which the Hospital Authority said would be difficult to implement. The action group on doctors' standard working hours, formed on Tuesday, will appeal to public doctors to put up hundreds of posters in the city's 40-odd hospitals. About 200 campaign banners will also be put up in the streets. The group, formed by council members of the Frontline Doctors' Union and the Public Doctors' Association, did not rule out further action, such as sit-in protests. Some doctors worked more than 100 hours a week and up to 24 hours in one stretch, it said. The 30-member group yesterday also demanded that secretary for food and health Dr York Chow Yat-ngok apologise for calling public doctors 'petty-minded' for asking for standard work hours. Carrying slogans such as 'we want safe work' and 'down with secretary York Chow', the posters will be put up in each public hospital. The authority has been in negotiations with doctors' unions over a HK$172-million package of measures to retain staff. While agreement was reached on some minor points, unions have rejected two key points relating to staff promotion prospects and workloads. The action group believes the package fails to address the key issue of heavy workloads and long hours. The authority will consult frontline staff on the package and talk to the unions again next month. The group will conduct its own survey to get staff views on the authority's proposals. Action group spokesman Dr Terence Yuen Mang-ho, a medical officer at Tuen Mun Hospital's internal medicine department, said yesterday Chow had been scandalising doctors over their fight for better conditions. 'Doctors are not asking for money or promotion, they want a safe work environment,' Yuen said. 'Some doctors now have to work 24 hours non-stop - this work situation is compromising patients' safety.' Demanding an apology over Chow's remarks, he said: 'The government and the Hospital Authority have no idea about standard work hours. That's why we have to come out to fight for it,' he said. Fellow group member Dr Ng Chi-ho, also from Tuen Mun hospital, said many doctors were unhappy with the package on offer. 'Those who decide to quit will go ahead and quit. The package does not work in retaining doctors,' he said. Chow's spokesman said yesterday that the government understood the situation facing public doctors and hoped its package could meet their needs. But he declined to say whether Chow would apologise. The action group will also meet legislators in an effort to put political pressure on the authority to improve doctors' working conditions. The Legislative Council's health services panel will discuss the issue on April 11. Medical sector legislator Dr Leung Ka-lau, an adviser to the action group, said the authority's proposed measures would provide only short-term relief. 'The package fails to tackle the fundamental problem, which is long work hours,' Leung said. 'Creating more promotions and issuing special allowances cannot relieve workloads. The issue should focus on patient safety.' He said the authority should buy services from the private sector to relieve public doctors' workloads.