1,200 junior doctors to work without any supervision

SENIOR hospital doctors are to meet with HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm today over concerns that more than a thousand medics will be able to work in the health system from July without having to undergo any vetting checks.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has claimed that from next month, 1,200 of the existing 4,800 junior doctors currently working in Ireland will no longer be under scrutiny by a more experienced professional as their training places will not be renewed.

Under a HSE plan, these junior doctors will effectively be placed on the Medical Council Register in a category similar to GPs, which means they will be treated as individual businesses.

The health authority developed the strategy in order to keep the medics in the system.

However, the IHCA has warned that this situation means 1,200 doctors will be working “without any safety net” within weeks.

And in a clear message before a crisis meeting with Prof Drumm and HSE national director of integration Laverne McGuinness in Dublin later today, the hospital consultants association has claimed the scenario will potentially put patients at risk of medical errors and the doctors involved in danger of legal action if a mistake occurs.

“They are fully trained doctors but these 1,200 will not be under anyone’s eye as they would otherwise be, they won’t be getting assessed,” explained IHCA assistant secretary general, Donal Duffy.

“Most of them will be of a high quality, but in a crowd of people like that there will always be a few where there are issues.

“The HSE are saying they are not renewing the training posts and that this is the only way to keep these junior doctors in the system, but it’s a worrying solution. It’s like that old solution to the driving licences. There were a lot of people on the roads who were driving but had no licences, so the Government decided it would be easiest just to give them all the qualifications automatically.

“This is the same. From July we will have people working in the system who have not undergone the proper vetting processes,” Mr Duffy said.

The meeting this afternoon will cause further difficulties for the HSE and Department of Health, which are already facing a potential health service crisis from next month.

Under EU working time directives, junior doctors cannot be rostered to work more than 48 hours per week.

However, those working in Irish hospitals regularly work far in excess of this figure to ensure patients’ needs are met.

If this situation continues after July 1, the Department of Health will face financial penalties implemented by Brussels, a situation detailed by the EU in a letter sent to the department last November.

Greece has already been referred to the European Court of Justice over the working hours of its junior doctors, while Belgium and Portugal have received warnings similar to those sent to Ireland.