Prognosis not good at losing docs

THE disclosure that one-in-five newlyqualified doctors has emigrated and that another 17% are thinking of going should sound alarm bells.

With so many young medical personal contemplating leaving, the country is on course to experience an acute shortage of doctors in the coming years adding to the already chronic difficulties afflicting the health service.

The previous and current governments must shoulder the blame for this catastrophic situation for it is the disastrous decisions made after 2011 which have made Ireland so unattractive for young doctors.

There is a colossal amount of training and resources put into training doctors and this is totally wasted if they decide to emigrate.

The latest census figures show Ireland has one of the highest birth rates in the EU and the population is now larger than at any time since the Great Famine of the 1840s.

At the other end of the age spectrum more people are living longer with it now not considered the exception for someone to survive well into their 90s.

While the population has been expanding rapidly the medical facilities needed to cope with the increased burden have not kept pace.

The Government’s decision to slash the incomes of GPS by up to 38% and cuts in the years after the financial crash have had devastating effects on the medical profession.