Staff shortage ‘piling pressure on junior doctors’

A SHORTAGE of doctors and nurses has made Kerry General Hospital (KGH) the most understaffed accident and emergency unit in the country.

The unit’s only A&E consultant, Dr Seán O’Rourke, warned that too much pressure is being placed on the units’ junior doctors.

The issue was also raised in the Dáil by Fine Gael TD, Jimmy Deenihan who said the junior doctors’ workload far exceeded Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland guidelines.

“The five junior doctors at Tralee are at Senior House Officer (SHO) grade and should collectively be seeing about 17,500 new patients a year but they are seeing more than 29,000.

“The RCSI has approved the granting of two more SHO posts to the A&E but they haven’t been filled,” he said.

Dr O’Rourke is only contracted to work from 9-5pm and to complete on-call duties and therefore much of the late night and early morning work at KGH is done by junior doctors.

“Our doctors are being forced to work harder and quicker than they should and that is when mistakes can be made. As well as requiring at least three more junior doctors, we also need more experienced non-consultant staff or people at registrar level who have at least three years experience,” he said.

“The junior doctors often don’t have anyone of experience to turn to when making decisions.”

Nursing levels at the hospital also came under attack from Mr Deenihan who said just three nurses work each night shift.

“Bearing in mind that patients frequently present at the A&E department late in the evening, and given that patients are waiting longer to be assessed, the night is often as busy, if not busier, than the day,” he said.