Hospital interns are ‘being asked to do duties they are not qualified for’
HOSPITAL interns and trainees were asked to do duties they were unqualified for and left unsupervised when a consultant was absent, investigations by the Medical Council have found.
The council has published the first reports into inspections of clinical training sites at the university hospitals in Galway, Letterkenny, Portiuncula, Sligo, Kerry, Cork, Waterford, the Mercy, and South Tipperary General Hospital.
In some cases, medical registrars refused to write notes in patients’ charts, leaving interns to complete them whether they had seen the patients or not.
Council inspectors also found reports of male interns receiving preferential treatment from nursing staff compared with their female counterparts.
They discovered allegations of bullying against one consultant over the organisation of the on-call rota and examples of unprofessional treatment of interns by members of a radiology department, with a sign saying ‘No NCHDs’ posted on its door.
The reports outlined that medical and professional development was being curtailed as interns are heavily involved in basic administrative and medical procedures, such as ECG and phlebotomy.
Úna O’Rourke, director of education, training and professionalism with the Medical Council, said numerous similar issues arose across many of the clinical training sites. “Issues, such as allegations of bullying, a lack of respect for trainees and lack of protected training time, are repeatedly highlighted, including in the Medical Council’s Your Training Counts survey,” she said.
Medical Council president Dr Rita Doyle said that bullying in the workplace would “not be tolerated”.
“We must ensure that our interns and NCHDs are treated with equality and respect in a bullying free work environment,” she added.
During the inspections, council assessors met with hospital group managers, clinical training site management, trainers, specialist trainees and interns.
They also inspected the educational facilities on site.