Sir, – The lack of hospital consultant applications should not come as a complete surprise (Editorial, February 4th). The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has been very vocal about this subject for the past number of years. The fact that the HSE and Government choose to ignore the facts and warnings from the professional representative bodies is less of a surprise.
The recognition of the seriousness of the issue by HSE chief executive Tony O’Brien is a welcome development, but until significant improvements are made to consultant terms and conditions, there will be no resolution of the recruitment deficits.
Recent OECD Indicators confirm Ireland is now the lowest paid country for doctors in the English-speaking world, which is where we compete for doctors. This includes consultants and GPs. We have fewer specialists per capita than most OECD countries. Working conditions compare very unfavourably with most modern countries.
Is it any wonder that we cannot recruit? Is it any wonder our trainee doctors are emigrating in such large numbers? It is indeed a “brain drain”, and a huge resource drain. The impact on morale on those remaining in our system and on those in training, as well as on all others struggling to provide care for our patients cannot be estimated.
Irish doctors have always been a highly trained and valuable and mobile resource. Our system is currently designed to force them to leave and never return.
The short-term gain in the salary reductions and the changed terms and conditions for our doctors is resulting in significant detrimental effects on the health service and most importantly on the delivery of care to our patients. The damage will take years to undo and will prove far more costly than any of the savings generated.
It is time, in the interest of our patients and of our health system to look to significantly improve the terms and conditions offered to our doctors in order to facilitate the development of a system that we can be proud of as we move forward into the next 100 years of our State. – Yours, etc,
Dr MICHAEL FitzGERALD.
Hospital Consultant.
South Tipperary General
Hospital,
Clonmel,
Co Tipperary.