Registrar in HSE South paid highest amount of overtime – €153,250, writes GORDON DEEGAN
ONE JUNIOR doctor in the HSE last year received more than €150,000 in overtime payments, the HSE confirmed yesterday. Records released through the Freedom of Information Act, show 11 Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors (NCHDs) received over €100,000 in overtime payments last year.
The figures show that a registrar working in the HSE South area that includes Cork and Kerry received €153,250 – the highest amount in overtime payments in the health service. A specialist registrar, also in the HSE South area, received €130,659
Last night, chairman of the Irish Medical Organisation’s (IMO’s) Non-Consultant Hospital Doctor (NCHD) committee, Dr Mark Murphy, said the high payments “are proof of grossly illegal and ferocious work practices at play concerning NHCDs within the HSE”.
Dr Murphy said the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) prohibits doctors working over 48 hours per week. He said the top overtime payments to the doctors “represent 0.1 per cent of the NCHDs across the State and these ‘outliers’ are working in some cases 110 hours per week. It is illegal and is not sustainable and I would have huge concerns about the fatigue levels among these doctors where in some cases they are working 36 hours straight through.”
Dr Murphy added: “The NCHDs don’t choose to work these hours and the hours being worked are emblematic of the huge difficulties the HSE has and its failure to deal with the issue.”
Minister for Health James Reilly has confirmed that last January the State submitted to the European Commission a plan to meet the terms of the EWTD relating to NCHDs within three years.
Dr Reilly said this would be done through the implementation of new work patterns for medical staff; the transfer of work undertaken by NCHDs to other grades; and the organisation of hospital services to support the working directive compliance.
“These measures will be complemented by my plan to establish hospital groups as soon as possible, by the efficiencies being driven by the Special Delivery Unit in association with the HSE’s National Clinical Programmes and by the ongoing changes in work practice being advanced under the Public Service Agreement,” Dr Reilly said.
However, Dr Murphy said yesterday that the Government’s proposal and timeframe “is not good enough. It must be done as soon as possible. Governments have had 15 years to do something about this.”
Dr Murphy said the average working hours of NCHDs was 62 hours per week.
In a statement explaining the top payments, the HSE said: “The majority of these overtime earners are registrars working in smaller sites where they may be on-call every second or third night and likewise every second or third weekend. While the intensity of the activity at these sites may not be sufficiently high to warrant additional NCHDs, as services are currently configured, these hours are required to maintain full 24-hour emergency services, seven days per week.”