The Department of Health expects the HSE to comply with statutory and policy requirements in filling consultant posts, the Dáil has been told.
Minister of State Damien English, for Minister for Health Simon Harris, said it was also recognised there were limited circumstances where an experienced doctor, usually a senior registrar who would not be on the statutory register, may cover for an absent consultant.
“This is in order to ensure senior medical coverage and the provision of safe, quality care,” he said.
He was replying to Fianna Fáil TD Jack Chambers who raised the warning by the VHI that it would not pay public hospitals for visits by its subscribers to consultants who did not have specialist qualifications in the area in which they were practising.
Mr Chambers said there had been a massive recruitment crisis in healthcare in the past few years due to the failure of the current and previous governments to keep graduates in the country.
The solution, it appeared, was to appoint people as consultants when they were not part of specialist training schemes. “That has considerable consequences for patient safety and care,’’ he added.
