Doctors under pressure as patient queues soar
Finbarr Fitzpatrick, secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said irate members will be demanding more staff and funding at their annual conference in Dublin today.
"Consultants are already concerned about the reductions in staff and funding in recent months but their major worry now is the 2003 budget will be much more restrictive," Mr Fitzpatrick said.
The IHCA has been demanding 1,000 extra consultants for the past four years but Health Minister Micheál Martin has failed to respond to this request, said Mr Fitzpatrick.
Despite bed restrictions and funding problems, patient numbers have increased over the past year.
Hospital consultants have had to treat 1,000 extra inpatient and day case patients a week in the past year and 4,000 extra outpatients, said Mr Fitzpatrick.
But rather than dealing with this problem, hoards of risk managers are generating paperwork and consuming precious medical and nursing time filling out forms and reports, while patients await treatment, Mr Fitzpatrick said.
Responding to the call for 1,000 extra consultants, a Department of Health spokesman said the National Health Strategy recommended there should be a substantial increase in consultants.
But the numbers and location of these will be determined on the advice of the National Task Force on Medical Staffing which is due to report shortly, the spokesman said.
Health Minister Micheál Martin is to address the 14th annual conference of the IHCA tonight.
Meanwhile, the Competition Authority has revealed the IHCA has told them it is not possible to estimate the earnings of the top 20% of consultants.
The authority is investigating a number of professions for possible restrictive practices.
He said to do this would require adding together the consultant's private income and public salary. Information on an individual's private fees are just that private.
There are 1,395 hospital specialists in the country who have a combined income from their State salaries and fees for treating private patients. Another 260 consultants have exclusively private practices.
