'Health service would collapse' without overseas doctors

The inability of doctors from overseas to visit loved ones in their country of origin during the pandemic had 'a significant effect on the mental health of both doctors and their families'.

Loneliness, financial worries, mental health pressures, and frustrated career ambitions were among the impacts of the pandemic on doctors from overseas who are working in the Irish health system.

The country's health services would “collapse” without these doctors, according to the co-author of the first study of its kind on the issue. It found the Covid-19 pandemic amplified existing pressures such as citizenship uncertainties.