‘Keep Our Doctors’ group welcome extra intern posts but say more needed

Earlier this month the group of Irish and international medical students from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and UCD, who are nearing graduation, launched a campaign to hold on to extra intern posts put in place last year to deal with Covid-19.

A group of medical graduates campaigning for 300 extra intern posts this year have welcomed signals that more than 100 additional posts will be provided.

However, the ‘Keep Our Doctors’ campaign still insists that more medical intern posts will be needed.

Earlier this month the group of Irish and international medical students from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and UCD, who are nearing graduation, launched a campaign to hold on to extra intern posts put in place last year to deal with Covid-19.

An online petition by the group has attracted almost 4,500 signatures to date.

Now, members of the medical community have taken to social media to welcome more than 100 additional intern posts this summer.

Dr Laura Durcan, a consultant rheumatologist at Beaumont hospital, thanked Health Minister Stephen Donnelly for sanctioning the additional posts in July. 

There will be more than 100 extra intern jobs in July!!!!

I couldn’t be happier for the new doctors, us who get to work with them, and the patients of Ireland who will benefit from their care.

Thanks to @DonnellyStephen for making this happen. Fabulous 👏🏻👏🏻@KeepOurDoctors_

— Laura Durcan (@Rheum2improve) March 16, 2021

“I couldn’t be happier for the new doctors, us who get to work with them, and the patients of Ireland who will benefit from their care,” Dr Durcan tweeted.

A great start to St Patricks Day!

55 additional specialist training posts & 100 extra intern posts!!

Thanks to @DonnellyStephen & the medical students & NCHDs who mobilised to make this happen 👏

A great step forward and more to be done!@Rheum2improve @KeepOurDoctors_

— Gabrielle Ní Challaráin (@GColleranMD) March 17, 2021

Dr Gabrielle Colleran, vice-president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, also took to Twitter to welcome the additional intern posts and 55 extra specialist training posts for doctors.

In response to the ‘Keep Our Doctors’ campaign, the HSE told this newspaper earlier this month that additional intern posts were only introduced last year as an “emergency measure” and that it planned to revert to the “standard annual intake” of about 734 posts this year. 

The number of intern posts would be reviewed in a “planned and targeted manner” for July 2022, the HSE said.

On Wednesday a spokesperson for the Department of Health said the matter of extra posts was being considered: “Department of Health officials and the HSE are finalising proposals for consideration by the Minister.”

While the proposals have yet to be finalised, the ‘Keep Our Doctors’ group said it would continue its campaign to retain more Irish-trained medical graduates.

Isadora Lamego, an American final year med student at the RSCI, welcomed as a “good starting point” the promise of between 100 and 130 extra intern posts.

She said, however, that more doctors will be needed, given ongoing recruitment and retention issues within the health service and the backlog of care that will arise because of the impact of Covid-19 on services.

“We’re happy that the HSE and Mr Stephen Donnelly are actively taking steps to get more interns but we’re a bit disappointed with the estimated numbers, particularly as we are still dealing with the challenges posed by Covid-19,” Ms Lamego said.

“In reality, an extra 100 posts isn’t going to solve the recruitment and retention issues within the health service,” she said, pointing to media reports that as many as 600 junior doctors may leave for better opportunities abroad this year.