‘Progress’ hospitals rewarded with 60 consultants
Up to €10 million is to be spent by the HSE on the posts, which will be spread across 60 specialities including emergency medicine, radiology, general medicine, general surgery and geriatric medicine.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) welcomed the announcement but added that patients should not be penalised because their hospitals are short of beds due to a lack of long-stay community beds.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said that sufficient resources need to be put in place so that the new consultants can access theatres, outpatients clinics and avail of appropriate secretarial, medical and administrative support.
The 60 posts were allocated on the basis of performance targets introduced by the Health Service Executive (HSE) last year as part of the “winter initiative” and aimed at reducing length of time spent at A&E.
Top of the class was Mid-West Regional Hospital, Limerick, which was awarded eight consultant posts. The wider mid-western hospital network will receive four more while St James’s and St Vincent’s hospitals are getting six new posts. Galway University will receive four.
According to a HSE spokesman, the new posts will further speed up a patient’s passage through the hospital — from A&E to discharge.
“The additional posts will increase the number of senior decision makers who will be present in emergency departments as well as the length of time such clinicians will be available. These posts will also help improve direct GP access to diagnostics and speed up the availability of diagnostic results,” he said.
IMO director of industrial relations Fintan Hourihan called on the appointments to be “filled as soon as possible” saying “the Irish health service is one of the most understaffed at consultant level in western Europe”.
It is expected that the remaining 40 posts to be created under the winter initiative scheme will be determined by the end of October 2007.
Speaking in Limerick yesterday, HSE chief executive Professor Brendan Drumm commended the successful hospitals and emphasised that the “development of seamless care between hospitals and community services was the key to reducing waiting lists and developing a quality health service”.
“Enabling patients to get in, through and out of our hospitals as quickly as possible must be our goal. This is what is best for patients and staff alike. They need to spend less time in hospital and more time being treated locally or at home. This will ensure that we maximise the use of our hospital and community facilities, and more importantly provide care that minimises the inconvenience for patients,” Prof Drumm said.
The HSE chief said it has been asked by the consultant contractual negotiators to wait until September to commence advertising for the new consultant positions but that it could be 12-18 months before candidates can take up positions.
Acting head of the National Hospitals Office John O’Brien, who heads up the winter initiative programme, said that he and the local implementation teams will continue to work closely with the hospitals who so far have not benefited from the 100 Plus scheme. He said that because of their continued efforts, they should be well placed to reach the basic targets and be awarded new posts under the scheme.
Labour Party health spokeswoman Liz McManus said: “It is vital also that the HSE enters into an arrangement to ensure that hospitals not qualifying on this occasions are provided with the means to improve their services so that they can also benefit from additional appointments.
“All sorts of factors can inhibit the performance of an A&E department including the availability of beds and the quality of the physical infrastructure.
“In most cases patients do not have a choice as to what hospital they may be attending and it is vital that they are not further disadvantaged for matters over which they have no control.”
