CLAIMS that a third of new junior doctors in the region face excessive working hours have been challenged.

While some hospitals admit that some pre-registration house officers still work "illegal" hours, other hospitals claim that working hours for new junior doctors are within agreed limits.

More than 4,700 new doctors started their first jobs this week.

But the British Medical Association warned that about one in three will be asked to work rotas of more than 56 hours a week, breaking a national agreement.

This is part of a move to bring all junior doctors within the scope of the European Working Time Directive Limit of a 48-hour maximum working week by 2009.

Dr Jo Hilborne, a registrar at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, and chairman of the Junior Doctors Conference, said: "It is better than it used to be - but the fact is there are plenty of doctors still working outside the New Deal hours."

A spokesman for the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust said all pre-registration house officers were working within the agreed 56-hour maximum.

There was a similar story at City Hospitals Sunderland.

South Durham NHS Trust and South Tees NHS Trust both claimed that 77 per cent of their junior doctors were within the 56-hour maximum.

A spokeswoman for North Durham NHS Trust said: "It is not as bad as one in three. We are working hard to make sure our rotas are compliant."