The new President of the Irish Medical Organisation, Dr. Denis McCauley, has called for a substantial increase in the number of GPs and consultants across the country.
The Stranorlar GP was making his inaugural address at the IMO AGM in Killarney when he said that health services continued to be undermined by shortages of beds, consultants and GPs leading to waiting lists which are “frighteningly long”.
Dr McCauley said; “The ESRI anticipate that we need over 5,000 new beds in public hospitals. Absent those extra beds, our bed occupancy rates run at 88% (11% over the recommended upper limit) and our full capacity protocols are now often operative year-round.”
He said: “1 in 5 Consultants posts aren’t filled and there are gaps in key specialties across the country. So yes, we have a new contract and many consultants have signed up to it but the shortages remain and are acute.”
“We also need to build trust – we need an acknowledgement from the system that consultants already provide care 24/7 through the on-call system. And we have to ensure that we properly support the consultants working on weekends so that we don’t simply move work from the middle of the week to the weekend. Let’s make sure that weekend work adds to the volume of work undertaken across the week rather than simply replaces the work done on other days currently”.
He said: “We welcome the increase in training posts for GPs but we have a huge need to substantially increase the number of GPs across the country and we must ensure that continuity of care is at the heart of how we approach General Practice into the future.”
The IMO’s gathering also highlighted the unsustainable working environment for junior doctors.
A survey has found that the health and safety of both patients and doctors in Irish hospitals is being routinely put at risk because young doctors are forced to work unsafe and illegal working hours.
The survey found that 83% of non-consultant hospital doctors are “routinely” working unsafe and illegal working hours in contravention of the Organisation of Working Time Act.
The issue was addressed by Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly who acknowledged that a “fundamental cultural change” is needed to improve working conditions. He said the Government is committed to having 6,000 consultants work in HSE hospitals by 2030.
On NCHDs, Dr. McCauley welcomed the fact that both the Minister for Health and the CEO of the HSE, Bernard Gloster, spoke to the AGM to give strong support to reforming the working environment for NCHDs.
Dr. McCauley said the survey of NCHD attitudes which was published by the IMO earlier this week had highlighted the urgency of reform in this area. At present, he said, “Being an NCHD just means being under constant pressure, working illegal and unsafe hours and having no work/life balance. “If you don’t respect them”, he said, “they won’t stay”.
