Women in health: There has been a doubling in the number of female hospital consultants appointed over the past decade, according to new figures. Women now account for more than a quarter of the almost 2,000 hospital consultants working in the public sector in the State.
In 1993 some 87 per cent of consultants were male and 13 per cent female but today the breakdown is 74 per cent male and 26 per cent female.
The trend towards increasing numbers of women being appointed to consultant posts is likely to continue in coming years, according to Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) general secretary, Finbarr Fitzpatrick.
This is, he says, because over half of non-consultant hospital doctors, otherwise referred to as junior doctors, are now women.
Women are more likely to be found in some specialities than others. Female consultant psychiatrists in the State, for example, now outnumber men. Some 53 per cent of psychiatrists are women. Other specialities like surgery remain male dominated.
The statistics are contained in the latest report on consultant staffing from the Health Service Executive. It says there were 1,947 permanent consultants working in public hospitals in the State at the beginning of this year, 123 more than a year ago. There are another 227 consultants working exclusively in private practice.
On average there is now one consultant for every 2,000 of the population. But some specialities have more consultants than others. There are just 52 consultants in emergency medicine (one for every 75,000 people) compared to 287 in anaesthesia (one for every 13,649 people). The average age of new consultants appointed last year was 40 years.
Mr Fitzpatrick said that when talks on the renegotiation of consultant contracts begin, perhaps later this year, he expects provision to be made for an increasing number of posts to be structured on a part-time or job sharing basis, which would suit the rising number of women taking up consultant posts who may also have family commitments, as well as older consultants who no longer want a heavy workload.
"Our contract negotiation group is meeting tomorrow to start preparatory work for negotiations on the contract. The last time they met was on November 20th, 2003," he said.
Negotiations on a new contract have been on hold pending resolution of a row over changes to consultants' medical malpractice insurance cover. Mr Fitzpatrick believes, however, a solution may be close and this is why the IHCA contract renegotiation team is meeting again.