Sir, - I am writing in response to a number of newspaper articles and RTE news items over the past few days, which have voiced concerns about the prospects of non-EU hospital doctors. These items have addressed the fact that after many years of service provision and work in the public health service, the concerned individuals are finding themselves without real prospects of consultancy posts in this country.
These reports indeed describe a very disheartening situation, and may give the misleading idea that the acquisition of a consultancy position is a certainty for the average EU hospital doctor.
The facts of the situation are that hospital doctors, of EU and non-EU origin, are all in work situations comprising of:
long hours, averaging 77 a week, and frequently much more;
a job based on service provision, with training comprising very little or no part of the day;
no job security, with most NCHDs working on six-month contracts;
frequent moving of locations: many hospital doctors are forced to move house every six months, many with young families;
no organised training in many fields;
no guarantee of ever having a permanent pensionable job in this country, despite many years of working, doing numerous exams, doing research, and actually providing the country's public health service.
Irrespective of ethnic background, it is a tiny minority of hospital doctors who attain a hospital consultancy in this country. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Emma Dineen, Galloping Green, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.