Junior doctors working in their chosen hospital specialty area for the first time are spending 14% of their time in administrative work and only 13% of their time learning their specialty, according to a report from the British Medical Association (BMA).
The BMA surveyed 435 doctors who graduated in 2006, and found that they worked an average of 43 hours per week.
They spent 66% of their working time on clinical duties, but not all of this work would be related to their specialty area.
Only 13% of their time was spent learning skills from other doctors, and 7% of the time was spent in study.
Administrative tasks included walking across the hospital to collect the lists of patients scheduled for surgery and writing down blood tests requests on paper.
BMAs Junior Doctor Committee chairman Dr Shree Datta said that it was galling to find doctors spending more time filling forms than learning the skills they need to become the consultants and GPs of tomorrow.
