THE MATERNITY unit of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda may have to be temporarily closed due to a critical shortage of junior doctors, it has emerged. Correspondence seen by The Irish Times indicates consideration has being given to the move by senior staff in the HSE.
An e-mail sent late last month by Martin McDonald from the HSE’s national HR directorate, to Rosarii Mannion, assistant national director with the HSE in Dublin North East, said the clinical director in the north east was suggesting “Drogheda maternity would have to close in July because some NCHD [non-consultant hospital doctor or junior doctor] posts couldn’t be filled”.
While the HSE yesterday said there were “no plans at present” to curtail services at the very busy maternity unit – which has been at the centre of controversy over the past week in relation to miscarriage misdiagnosis – the Irish Hospital Consultants Association said it believed a number of obstetric units around the country could have services curtailed from July 1st as a result of a critical shortage of junior doctors.
The HSE said: “Urgent action is being taken to ensure all NCHD posts are filled in Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda from July. At present there are no plans to curtail maternity services.”
The consultants’ association says services may also have to be curtailed in emergency, paediatric and anaesthetic departments due to the shortage of junior doctors. Surgery may also be affected.
Dr Paul Oslizlok, president of the consultants’ association, said the shortages meant women could end up turning up in labour at hospitals or other patients could turn up with heart attacks and find no one there to treat them.
He said about 4 per cent of junior doctor posts were vacant last year and this number is expected to double when junior doctors, who change jobs every six months, rotate jobs again on July 1st. Up to 600 junior doctor posts may be vacant, he said.
“Such a radical reduction in a vital area of hospital staffing will have immediate and far reaching effects . . . some accident and emergency and obstetrical services may have to close,” he said.
Dr Oslizlok said every obstetric unit had to be able to carry out emergency Caesarean sections around the clock and if it had no anaesthesia cover that service would collapse. “In Drogheda . . . they are struggling to find enough anaesthetic trainees to provide the service for the hospital.”
The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine also warned in April the shortage of junior doctors could result in some emergency departments closing or limiting their opening hours. It said the situation was most acute at hospitals in Naas, Ballinasloe, Castlebar, Tralee and Letterkenny.
Dr Oslizlok said there were a number of reasons for the shortage but one is the fact that about 1,200 of the junior doctors jobs in Irish hospitals are no longer recognised for training purposes by the HSE, making them unattractive to applicants.
While the HSE is trying to recruit junior doctors from abroad to fill the shortfall, it has acknowledged services may have to be curtailed or reconfigured. Draft plans have been drawn up in the north east to reorganise services in Dundalk and Drogheda to cope with the forecasted shortages.
Dr Oslizlok also expressed concern that the junior doctors who now apply for the 1,200 non-training posts in hospitals will have to go on the general division of the Medical Council’s medical register, rather than the training division. This will mean they will be allowed to work independently and unsupervised and this could pose risks to patient safety.
Last night, the HSE said contingency plans are being prepared in each of the four HSE regions to cope with any problems if they arise.
But it said it now accepts that “where possible, all existing training posts will continue to be recognised as training posts for one further year”.
The consultants’ group will outline its concerns to Minister for Health Mary Harney tomorrow.