Hospital consultants hit out at 'threatening' and 'tone-deaf' request

The letter says emergency patients are being referred to trainees for evaluation, without first being reviewed by ED doctors. The RCPI urged hospitals to stop this, saying otherwise they are 'at risk of having their status as BST (basic specialist training) training sites removed'. File picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

A request to hospitals that doctors in training should no longer assess patients in emergency departments for admission has been described as “threatening” and “tone deaf” by hospital consultants.

The Institute of Medicine in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI), which oversees medical training, wrote to hospitals on March 13.