‘Award consultant status to public health doctors’

A report has recommended that public health doctors be awarded the same status as hospital consultants and their remuneration be made more attractive.

The report, by consultants Crowe Horwarth, says the upgrades should apply to doctors who meet defined criteria in terms of experience and qualifications, and should be contingent upon “significant progress” being made in revising and enhancing the role of public health doctors.

It says circa 10 new entrants into public health medicine should be recruited into the system each year for the next five years, ahead of an expected “large number of retirements” in the next decade.

The recommendations are likely to be welcomed by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which represents specialists in public health medicine, who are currently gearing up for a work-to-rule in the public health out-of-hours system from January 14.

The vote for a work-to-rule was prompted by delays in publishing the Crowe Horwarth report, which Health Minister Simon Harris received last April.

The Department of Health said it had considered the report’s recommendations in the context of its blueprint for health reform, Sláintecare, and in light of the recommendations of Dr Gabriel Scally, author of the report on the CervicalCheck scandal, who “made clear that the skills of public health doctors must be more appropriately deployed at the core of all public health programmes”.

The department said all recommendations were being considered and the process of engagement with stakeholders would begin in January.

Among the report’s recommendations are:

That the department “give serious consideration to the awarding of consultant status to public health doctors who meet defined criteria in respect of academic qualifications and experience”;

That their remuneration package be reviewed to make it more attractive, in tandem with a formal revision of their role to reflect a broader range of activities and responsibilities;

The creation of formal joint appointment posts between medical schools and both local departments of public health medicine and relevant national public health settings.

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The report also says that the HSE should develop “a significantly (and possibly even radically) different organisational model for the delivery of public health services”.