The sole A&E consultant at Kerry General Hospital is likely to move to another job as a result of the failure of the Health Service Executive (HSE) to properly staff his department.
Dr Sean O'Rourke is understood to be totally frustrated at the fact that his attempts to get extra staff to assist him in an A&E unit catering for 28,000 attendances a year have fallen on deaf ears.
GPs in the county, who expressed concerns at his plans to leave the hospital, said he was likely to move to a job at Tullamore General Hospital where the A&E unit had more than twice as many junior doctors but saw fewer patients every year.
Dr John Casey said Dr O'Rourke wanted to stay in Kerry but was not prepared to stay in a job without sufficient backup. "He came 18 months ago and he's been trying everything to get staff. All he has is four senior house officers," he said. "In Tullamore there are five registrars and five senior house officers," he added.
Dr John Chute, of the Irish College of General Practitioners in Kerry, said Dr O'Rourke was "cheesed off" by the failure to upgrade the A&E unit. Failing to provide the staff he needed and allowing him to go was, he said, "a retrograde step".
Dr O'Rourke's case mirrors that of Dr Oscar Breathnach, a cancer specialist who handed in his notice at Cork's University Hospital last March. He was frustrated at the failure to provide a dedicated ward for cancer patients at the hospital, which he had been campaigning for for four years.
The HSE Southern Area said the A&E unit in Tralee was unsuitable to cater for the requirements of patients and a new one was planned. Calls to Kerry General Hospital to speak with Dr O'Rourke yesterday were directed to the HSE.