ONE in six hospitals is now breaking the law by asking junior doctors to work longer hours than they are allowed under new European rules which came into force yesterday.

The European Working Time Directive means doctors in training should not be required to work more than a maximum of 58 hours a week.

But the NHS Confederation, which represents hospital trusts, said about a sixth of hospitals have not been able to meet today's deadline for implementing the directive.

Hospitals breaking the new rules face fines of up to £5,000 for each failure and could be taken to employment tribunals by junior doctors who complain.

A spokesman for the NHS Confederation said a survey earlier this summer indicated that about 16% of NHS trusts would fail to meet the deadline.

"We don't expect it would have changed," he said.

Areas affected were likely to be specialist units such as maternity and paediatrics rather than across the whole hospitals, he said.

"Obviously, we do have concerns in the fact that these members will be non-compliant with the directive, which is technically illegal.

"But the fact that these trusts are non-compliant does not mean that there's a sudden drop in standards of care.

"All the trusts are trying to become compliant but they have not been able to do it by the deadline. In 84% of trusts, patients should actually notice an improvement in their standard of care because junior doctors are less tired," the spokesman said.

But the British Medical Association (BMA) said last week it would back doctors who complained if they were still being forced to work more than 58 hours a week.

Simon Eccles, chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee, said: "This is health and safety legislation - it's being introduced to protect patients as well as doctors, and hospitals need to take it seriously."

"Where the directive is flouted, the BMA will provide doctors with information, advice and, where appropriate, legal support." The BMA said it was ready to "name and shame" NHS trusts which allowed the new limits to reduce the quality of training received by junior doctors.

Some hospitals have used the opportunity to cut hours to introduce new working patterns that had driven up standards, the BMA said.

But many hospital have simply brought in shift systems which require doctors to work for stretches of up to 13 hours.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "The Labour government signed up to the Working Time Directive.

"This is now either consuming thousands of hours of junior doctors' time or causing smaller hospitals serious problems in maintaining services," he said..

"The combination of EU regulation and government incompetence is doing real damage to the NHS."

From 2009, junior doctors' hours will fall to 48 a week under the directive.