New figures reveal HSE struggles to recruit consultants 

Not a single doctor replied to 7% of the hospital consultant posts that were advertised over the past 20 months. File picture

Not a single doctor replied to 7% of the hospital consultant posts that were advertised over the past 20 months by the Public Appointments Service.

In another 17% of the advertised competitions, there was just a single applicant — while efforts to fill multiple vacancies did not attract any applications in several cases.

Vacancies were particularly hard to fill in psychiatric services outside of the major cities, according to a detailed list of competitions and their outcomes, which was released under FOI.

In one advertisement for three separate consultant child and adolescent psychiatrists in the Midlands, not a single doctor applied for any of the posts.

A similar recruitment drive for two psychiatrists for younger people in the Sligo/Leitrim area also saw nobody seeking to take up either job.

There were also difficulties in filling two consultant posts in University Hospital Kerry where advertisements for a consultant in geriatric medicine (older people) and a child and adolescent psychiatrist both went unanswered.

A public call for a new haematologist shared between three hospitals in Cork also attracted zero applications as did a dermatologist post shared between Sligo and Letterkenny Hospitals.

Two consultant positions for specialists in geriatric medicine in Donegal also proved unattractive with nobody applying for the posts.

In 25 publicly advertised competitions, only the same number of people applied for the job as there were posts available — leaving no choice over who could be chosen for interview.

Seventeen of those involved a single post, where only one person applied and ended up alone in being called for an interview.

The HSE has admitted that recruiting consultants is a “challenging area” while the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said the difficulties were inevitable because of the two-tier pay structure in place for new entrants.