A report recommending hundreds more hospital consultants be employed across the State was welcomed yesterday amid warnings that additional senior staff would not remedy a "creaking" health service alone.
The report, details of which were published in The Irish Times, will come before Cabinet in the next few weeks, a Department of Health spokeswoman confirmed. She said the report compiled by the Medical Manpower Forum was still confidential and the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, could not comment on it until after it was published.
The Department of Health, the Irish Medical Organisation, the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association and Irish Medical Council had an input into the report which, if implemented, will mean consultants will be present in hospitals 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, secretary-general of the IHCA, said he had proposed well over a year ago that more than 1,000 consultants be recruited. The report, finalised in November, does not say exactly how many should be employed.
Mr Fitzpatrick said he was concerned about the delay in having the report brought to Cabinet because he had hoped negotiations with consultants on its implementation could begin next month and be completed by the autumn.
"We are concerned at the delay because the public system at the moment is creaking and there are extra consultants needed to use the facilities that are there to the full. But I would emphasise that extra consultants on their own will not solve all the problems. We are short 1,800 nurses and that problem, amongst others, must be solved before the public get the service they are entitled to," he said.
He added that it would take five to seven years to employ the extra consultants.
Mr Fintan Hourihan, industrial relations director of the IMO, wants the report to be published as soon as possible. "We would welcome the recognition that the system has been operating on a grossly understaffed basis for many years," he said.
Mr Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients' Association welcomed "the direction" of the report. He said any increase in consultant numbers would have to be part of an overall reform package. "It's not just a matter of increasing numbers and continuing on as is."
Fine Gael's health spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell, urged the Government to increase the number of doctors in training so as to be able to meet the increased demand for consultants in coming years. He said consideration should also be given to employing "middle-rank specialists" who would earn consultants' wages but work permanently in hospitals.