Shortage of staff looms at CUH emergency department

One of the country’s largest hospitals will be forced to cope with an “unprecedented” drop in key emergency department staff from next month because of a chronic manpower crisis.

The claim was made by Prof Stephen Cusack, an emergency department consultant at Cork University Hospital, who said thesituation will arise when the annual junior doctor intake occurs on Jul 7.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, the senior hospital physician said a lack of staff and over-reliance on outside agencies means the annual date consistently becomes a crisis situation for hospitals.

However, he said this July will be particularly difficult for CUH as, unlike previous periods, a shortage of staff means its emergency unit will not be able to depend on the same number of workers as planned.

Currently, CUH has six registrars — a position between a junior doctor and a consultant — to cover a 24-hour period in its emergency department.

However, while this level has been maintained in previous years as medics move to other facilities during the new intake of junior doctors, Prof Cusack said the number will drop to just two next month.

“It is an unprecedented situation, there is a serious problem with the number of junior doctors in the system,” he said.

The comment came as the Oireachtas health committee heard from senior HSE officials about attempts to address the exodus of doctors from the system.

Barry O’Brien, the HSE’s national director of human resources, told the committee there has been an increase in the number of training posts now available to new graduates, adding that some 4,910 junior doctors are currently in the system.

However, he was bombarded with claims by committee members that young medics are leaving the country in droves for better prospects abroad.

In addition, it was claimed that the issue has been compounded by a major drop-off in the number of young doctors from Pakistan interested in coming to work in Ireland for two years under a recently established training scheme.

In 2011, more than 200 applications were received.

However, after a national controversy over how these doctors were treated by the HSE at the time, and contradictory information over what their contracts involved, the number this year has fallen to about 30.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Drivetime show, Mercy University Hospital emergency consultant Dr Chris Luke said the staffing problem in his speciality has not been addressed.

“It’s a nightmare trying to staff our department, we are being left without staff,” he said.