A&E crisis leaves consultants ‘sitting around drinking coffee’

MANY consultant surgeons, who earn about €135,000 a year, are sitting around drinking coffee because they have nothing else to do, the Irish Medical Organisation said last night.

The union, which has 680 consultant members, said the accident and emergency crisis means beds allocated to scheduled surgery are being taken up by general emergency patients and surgery is subsequently cancelled.

One surgeon, who said he is “well paid”, said he does not have enough patients to fill his working day.