More than 400 consultant posts left vacant as contract talks stall

Professor Alan Irvine, president of the IHCA, said the vacancies are an "unequivocal signal" doctors are leaving the system. 

There are now 837 consultant posts vacant or filled by temporary staff, with spiralling waiting lists predicted to keep growing unless recruitment is addressed.

That is according to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), which has found 412 of these posts are completely vacant without even a locum to see patients.

Negotiations between doctors’ unions and the Government on a new contract, which the IHCA say would address these issues, have stalled. Chair of the talks, barrister Marguerite Bolger, resigned on being appointed a judge in December and has not been replaced.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said on Monday that Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is “giving consideration to appointing a replacement for the previous chair”. She added that "these considerations are ongoing".

Mr Donnelly said: “It would not be appropriate to make public details about the talks at this time, save to say that I, my officials and the HSE are committed to introducing a new contract as soon as practicable.” 

Between May last year and February the number of posts filled on a temporary basis increased from 295 to 354. Among the vacant posts are 249 created in the last 12 months, but they have not yet been filled, the data released initially by the HSE to Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane shows.

IHCA: 837 Consultant posts vacant or filled on a temporary/agency basis - an all-time high & up 15% in 9mths! Govt. must address root causes of recruitment & retention crisis as #Carecantwait for patients @MichealMartinTD @DonnellyStephen @davidcullinane https://t.co/ixspwYjLta

— IHCA (@IHCA_IE) March 21, 2022

The IHCA found the number of filled posts increased at a slower rate from 2,886 in May to 3,019 last month. Psychiatry is one of the areas finding it the hardest to recruit, as was highlighted in South Kerry recently when children were treated for five years by a junior psychiatrist lacking supervision. 

Professor Alan Irvine, president of the IHCA, said the vacancies are an "unequivocal signal" doctors are leaving the system.  “As a result, Irish patients are not getting the hospital and mental health treatment that they need," he said. 

Hospital waiting lists hit 879,000 in January with thousands waiting months to be seen. 

“Without a sufficient number of permanent specialist consultants in posts to assess and treat patients, waiting times and lists will get longer and longer, as evident from the fact that 54 people were added to public hospital waiting lists every single day over the past year,” Prof. Irvine said.

The HSE’s service plan, published earlier this month, states recruitment is “very challenging” and they expect to hire 5,000 people this year. This is despite the Department of Health estimating in Budget documents that 8,000 posts could be filled.