191 junior doctor posts are unfilled, says HSE

THERE are 191 junior doctor posts vacant in hospitals around the country, the Health Service Executive has confirmed.

The figure, revealed at a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, is higher than around 150 given by the health authority a week ago.

The authority’s chief executive, Cathal Magee, said there were currently 4,660 non-consultant hospital doctors.

“As of July 20, data collated from individual hospitals indicates that 192 posts are vacant at this time,” said Mr Magee.

He said 300 doctors from Pakistan and India had applied for visas to date and 128 had already arrived in Ireland.

The doctors, who will be provided with a two-year contract, will have to meet new Medical Council registration rules before being allowed to work.

Mr Magee, who was making his first appearance before the committee, said demand for services continued to grow and was exceeding their capacity to meet demand.

He said the authority was implementing almost €1 billion in budget cuts.

The HSE budget for demand-led schemes continued to be €58m short, while the deficit in primary care had increased to €50m.

Mr Magee said changes in the role of smaller hospitals were being accompanied with the development of the ambulance service.

He said the HSE had invested significantly in the training of ambulance paramedic staff and the number of advanced paramedics had increased from 14 in 2005 to 220 to date and was spending in excess of €200,000 on the service every month.

Earlier, the Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly, said the way health care was being delivered could not continue.

Dr Reilly warned that if health spending was to continue the way it had in the past, €37bn would be needed by 2020, more than double than the €14bn being spent this year.

The Minister said there would be more investment in smaller hospitals over the next 12 to 18 months with a clear time line on the changes that would be made.

Dr Reilly said he stood over statistics produced by his department showing that cardiac patients attending Roscommon Hospital had four times the mortality rate, at 21.3%, of those admitted to Galway University Hospital, at 5.8%..

“But it was not the basis on which the decision to close and change the emergency department at Roscommon,” he insisted.

He said the previous government had invested very little in the hospital. “We intend to invest in it in a safe way,” he said.

Replying to Denis Naughten, who lost the Fine Gael whip when he sided with opposition parties backing calls for the retention of the emergency department at Roscommon hospital, Dr Reilly said money could not have fixed the problem at the hospital.

“The future of Roscommon in a priority for me and this Government and I want it to be an exemplar of what can be achieved,” he said.