Almost 1,000 hospital consultant posts are not filled on a permanent basis, with some lying vacant for years, figures show.
Last month, 480 consultant posts were vacant, including 323 that are newly created and currently under recruitment, according to the Health Service Executive.
A further 356 permanent posts are filled on a temporary or locum basis, while 68 are filled by agency staff. The status of 29 posts is unknown, but are likely to be vacant.
The 933 posts not filled on a permanent basis last month – more than one-fifth of all posts – compares with 720 in September 2021.
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One in five vacant posts have remained vacant for more than two years, according to the figures provided by the HSE to Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane.
A breakdown of the status of vacant posts across the health service shows BreastCheck has seven vacant consultant posts out of a complement of 44, while the Dublin children’s hospitals have 48 vacant posts out of 301. Crumlin children’s hospital is short seven paediatricians, four radiologists and four anaesthetists.
The Mater hospital in Dublin has 38 vacant posts, including eight in radiology. Nationally, psychiatry is the specialty with the highest number of vacant posts.
Mr Cullinane described the figures as “worrying”.
“This illustrates again the need for a comprehensive and strategic work force plan that substantially increases training places across our health services.
“From nurses, to those working in mental health, to GPs, dentists and those providing services to children with disabilities, we have a recruitment and retention crisis.
“We need to train more doctors and allied healthcare professionals but we also need to address the housing crisis which is more and more becoming a barrier to recruitment in the public service.”
The number of permanent consultant posts either vacant or not filled as needed has not reduced from about 900 for the past two or three years, the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association said.
“This is despite the Government and health service management seemingly suggesting that there is not a consultant recruitment and retention crisis,” a spokeswoman said. “The level of unfilled permanent posts is adversely impacting services and waiting lists.”
“It is projected that [in] public hospitals and mental health services we will need to appoint a minimum of 2,000 additional consultants by 2030 – around an extra 300 annually – if we are to meet our patients’ needs now and into the future. We desperately need solutions to resolve the crisis.”
