The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has strongly criticised the chief executive of the Health Service Executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, and maintained that he had no new ideas on how to solve the problems in A&E departments.
In a statement yesterday, association president Dr Josh Keaveny said Prof Drumm's only policy seemed to be "to criticise A&E consultants who have to grapple on a daily basis with overcrowding, seriously-ill patients on trolleys and a lack of bed capacity".
"Every study, both national and international, on our bed capacity has verified that we need more acute hospital beds. Yet Prof Drumm refuses to accept this fact," he said.
"His policy is at variance with that of the Tánaiste and every other reputable school of medical opinion in the country."
Prof Drumm, who was appointed head of the HSE last summer, is a consultant paediatrician and former member of the IHCA.
"There is nothing new or original in the contributions by Prof Drumm. He has merely continued the policy of criticising, demonising and denigrating a key group within the hospital services whose good will is crucial to resolving the A&E crisis and the various other emergencies with which patients and hospital staff have struggled for over a decade," Dr Keaveny said.
He added that the medical profession had expected leadership and innovative ideas from Prof Drumm.
On Thursday, Prof Drumm told an Oireachtas committee that consultants had to accept their share of the blame for problems in A&E.
He said that in some centres, patients were left waiting overnight for ultrasound scans because consultants only worked from 9.30am to 5.30pm.
