THE SHORTAGE of junior doctors experienced last July may well be repeated in January and could be “much worse”, the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association has warned.
Last July, a severe shortage of junior doctors, known as non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs), was experienced in public hospitals as part of the medical training system’s six-monthly rotation.
The 193 vacant posts were not entirely filled until the last few weeks following the recruitment of doctors from India and Pakistan.
The shortage resulted in pressure on hospital services around the State. The next training rotation is due in January 2012.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health yesterday, Dr Margo Wrigley, president of the association said of the 60-70 vacancies that would arise in January in the area of psychiatry alone, only 20 applications had been received so far. And of those, only 15 applicants were eligible.
“And we are not sure how many will actually take up the posts,” she said. “So this is a problem that is going to repeat itself and probably be much worse in January.”
She said she was sure the situation was the same in other specialities. “Repetition may be the order of the day,” Dr Wrigley said.
Shirley Coulter, assistant director of the Irish Medical Organisation, said the shortage of junior doctors was “a retention rather than a recruitment issue”.
There was a crisis of morale among non-consultant doctors, she said, and many were choosing to work abroad. In Ireland, they were experiencing “unilateral” breaches of the terms and conditions of their contracts, they were working excessively long hours and were finding it difficult to meet their training needs.
“The disregard of NCHDs’ rights are an endemic part of the Irish hospital system,” she said.
Sinn Féin Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said in his 15 years as a health spokesman in the Houses of the Oireachtas he had never been more “alarmed and concerned” about hospital services.
