Waiting room: Consultants expecting €700m pay day

Don’t expect others in the public service to rally behind the hospital consultants, writes Health Correspondent Catherine Shanahan

THERE’S no denying that many hospital consultants are worth their weight in gold. These are the men and women who, by and large, are buried in books for the best part of 10 years.

And even when trainee doctors finally reach the hallowed heights of hospital consultant, the learning is not done. In fact it’s never done — they are on a continual learning curve, presented with new patient challenges every day, new medical breakthroughs, new research. They are all the time honing and deepening their expertise. This is good news for the patient. None of us wants a novice in the resus room.