‘Shortage of junior doctors behind crisis’

THE crisis in emergency departments will continue to worsen until the chronic shortage of junior doctors is addressed.

Dr Chris Luke, an emergency department consultant at Cork University Hospital and the city’s Mercy University Hospital, said it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep emergency departments open due to a “completely erratic supply of manpower” in the healthcare system.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Dr Luke described the shortage of non-consultant doctors as the “greatest challenge” in modern Irish medicine and said the shortage of junior doctors may result in just two-thirds of the hundreds of posts in emergency departments being filled.