Doctors suffering morale crisis

ALMOST one-third of non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) would not choose medicine again if they had a choice.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has blamed a crisis in morale and poor manpower planning by the HSE for junior doctors travelling abroad to complete specialist training.

“While the HSE has attributed the problem to a worldwide shortage of NCHDs, the IMO has repeatedly highlighted that it is a retention rather than a recruitment issue,” said the IMO’s assistant director of industrial relations, Shirley Coulter, yesterday.

Ms Coulter told a meeting of the joint Oireachtas committee on health that an IMO survey found that 60% of NCHDs were unlikely to return to Ireland because of a shortage of consultant posts.

She said a restructuring of about 1,000 non-training posts was needed so that, at the very least, the required number of specialists were being produced in Ireland so as to avoid recruiting them from developing countries.

The survey found that only 54% of NCHDs are in a position to avail of educational leave, 55% do not get paid for all hours worked and 79% say there is insufficient locum cover.

Ms Coulter added: “More family-friendly work practices abroad will continue to attract our graduates overseas unless these issues are addressed.”

Senator John Crown, a consultant oncologist, said there was something profoundly abnormal in the way the Irish medical career path had been structured.

“How can it be that a country that has the largest number of medical schools per head of population of any western country has the lowest number career-level doctors?” he asked.