Asian junior doctors’ drive cost €2m

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) spent €2 million in 2011 recruiting junior doctors from India and Pakistan to shore up a shortfall in the Irish health service — yet further shortages are predicted for January.

A summary of the overall costs for the South Asia recruitment drive shows that as of early November, €1,949,538 of taxpayers’ money had been spent, including:

n€168,843 in refunded flight costs for junior doctors (known as non-consultant hospital doctors or NCHDs) who travelled here from India and Pakistan in anticipation of working for the HSE;