THE JUNIOR hospital doctor crisis “will be fixed in so far as it can be fixed” by next month, the Minister for Health James Reilly pledged last night.
He said however that there were hospitals the HSE would have tremendous difficulty filling posts in. “We may very well end up with some accident and emergency departments that can’t be safely manned. I can certainly say this much, it will not be any of the major ones . . . it is the small rural hospitals where we’re going to have real difficulty,” he said.
These smaller hospitals are likely to include places like Navan, Portlaoise and Roscommon, but his confirmation that posts in larger hospitals will be filled will come as a relief to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick where doctors have warned they have only been able to recruit sufficient junior doctors to open their emergency department from 8am to 8pm from July 11th.
Speaking on RTE's Frontlineprogramme, he confirmed he was looking at changing the current registration system for non EU doctors to make it easier for them to come and work in Ireland. Under current regulations these doctors have to sit an exam known as the Pres exam with questions similar to those in final med, even after many years of on the job training, and he said only 10 per cent of the more than 400 "top quality" junior doctors which the HSE had found in India and Pakistan during a recruitment drive were willing to sit this examination. Meanwhile they were being taken into Britain, he said.
Dr Reilly said he was looking at refocusing this exam and perhaps reinstituting a systemof temporary registration for these doctors, as in the UK. This was in place prior to the implementation of the 2007 Medical Practitioners Act. The changes would be supported by legislation if necessary.
He also said he was committed to an improved career path for junior doctors and reducing their hours of work. Some hospitals had a very bad reputation and junior doctors did not want to work in them, he said.
He was aware in some places junior doctors were told they had to come in at 7am and work until 8pm but they would only be paid from 9am to 5pm. “If they want to get their reference they’ll do what they’re told. Now you can’t abuse people like that on an ongoing basis,” he said.
The Government may have to lift its public sector recruitment ban if the crisis facing emergency departments in the midwest is to be averted, according to Labour’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Jan O’Sullivan.
The party’s former spokeswoman on health has said it is “inconceivable” that a region with a population of 361,000 could be left without 24-hour emergency hospital cover.
The Limerick Minister was reacting to reports the emergency department at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital faces closure at night from next month, because of a shortage of doctors.
It has been reported the chairman of the hospital’s medical board, Dr Sandy Fraser, recently informed HSE boss Cathal Magee that patients attending the department from July 1st may have to be diverted to either Cork or Galway during night hours.
A HSE statement described the recruitment of non-consultant hospital doctors as a “challenging national issue”.
“We continue to work through the process in terms of recruitment campaigns at national and international level.
“The public can be assured that the issue is receiving attention at the highest level, and we are engaged with all the parties, including the medical colleges which oversee the training of junior doctors, the Medical Council, the Department of Health and Children and the Minister for Health.”
