New law essential to end shortage of consultants — doctors’ leader
A SERIOUS shortage of medical consultants in the Covid-hit health service needs to be tackled by removing a ban which prevents many hospital doctors from training to fill those vacant positions, said Medical Council president Rita Doyle.
The health service had to go into battle against the pandemic while suffering a shortage of 500 medical consultants.
There is an urgent need to remove a legal barrier that prevents non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs), who qualified outside the EU, from getting the required training to become the specialists that are needed, she said.
As the system seeks to ramp up its treatment of cancer and other serious diseases that were delayed because of Covid, the need for those missing consultants is greater than ever, Dr Doyle added.
She said mid-ranking doctors who qualified outside the EU are the backbone of the Irish hospital system and it is unfair they are excluded from training to be promoted into more challenging roles.
“A lot of non-EU trained doctors who come to this country and who want to stay in this country are prevented by law from accessing training,” she said.
There is a piece of legislation that was due to be enacted just prior to the change of government. It would allow these doctors to access training in this country to become consultants.
“The health service would fall apart without them. They are the backbone of the health service,” said Dr Doyle. “The fact that they have been denied access to training is unfair so this legislation will sort that problem out.”
For 11 years, the Medical Council has been seeking a change in legislation and the HSE and Department of Health are also seeking change.
The Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2019 seeks to make amendments on a number of professional bodies and contains important changes to the Medical Practitioners Act 2007.
This legislation was listed as a priority in the last Dail term by the previous government but it was not completed before the general election. It is hoped the new law will be passed in September.
Dr Doyle said doctors currently barred from training to access the specialist register have had no career pathways in Ireland.
Many had moved to the UK where they are allowed to train to become specialists.
“Many are really superb doctors. Allowing them to access training to be consultants will help towards dealing with the problem of the big shortage of medical consultants in Ireland.
“Many of them have families here. A lot have Irish partners but there has been no career progression for them,” she said.
Pay disparity hitting new consultants also contributes to the current shortage, she said.
Dr Doyle also called for medical posts to be created for the many young doctors who returned from abroad to help the nation fight the pandemic. Around 200 doctors moved back in response to the ‘Be on call for Ireland’ campaign in a patriotic move.
“My personal opinion is it would be an insult to expect them to pack up and go back when they gave up what they had to come back to help their own country.
“The Medical Council is not the employer so it is up to the HSE and the Department of Health but I suspect new training posts will have to be created in order to facilitate these people,” she said.
In all, almost 400 doctors re-entered the system to help their colleagues deal with the Covid health crisis.
The pandemic appealed to the best in everybody, including doctors, Dr Doyle said.
“Doctors and nurses have been risking their lives to stop this situation from exploding in our faces like we have seen happen in other countries,” she added.
“At every level, doctors too are working much harder than they would normally be working.”
‘Many have Irish partners but there is no career progression’