Top medics shun Ireland
Two-tier pay ‘risks recruitment at new National Children’s Hospital’
A GOVERNMENT minister yesterday told doctors that he agreed a two-tier pay system for consultants is unfair, after top hospital doctors heard that projects such as the €1bn National Children’s Hospital will not succeed without attracting top medical talent.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) was told yesterday by Gabrielle Colleran, a consultant at Temple and Holles Street hospitals, that doctors were refusing to come to Ireland because of the lower pay rates for newlyappointed specialists.
She said the 57% pay difference between old and new consultants – which sees 2012 as a cut-off for the lower pay – is ‘a push too far’.
If sufficient consultants were not appointed, the scheduled opening of the much-delayed hospital could be further pushed out, she warned.
‘Our real concern is that we will not have enough people to staff the hospital to open it on time or, which could be worse, we will staff it with people who meet minimum eligibility criteria but we will not have a competitive process,’ Ms Colleran told the conference.
She said: ‘If we do not get the right people, our hospital will fail’.
Junior Health Minister Jim Daly, said he accepted the two-tier pay system for consultants was ‘unfair’.
‘If we do not invest in the people that work in hospitals in the appropriate manner, then we are not going to get the results,’ he said.
‘If we do not have competition for these posts then standards will drop. There is no point in pretending otherwise. And we will result in settling for second best.’
Ms Colleran explained that two weeks ago, problems attracting specialists to work in the new hospital had been put on the risk register of the children’s hospital group.
Mr Daly said the Government was working to address the issues within the public health service and told the conference that in the year to August there had been 118 new consultants appointed and that a HSE proposal to open a further 600 new acute hospital beds between 2018-2010 was being assessed by the department.
Mr Daly also acknowledged the continuing issue of waiting lists.
He said: ‘Notwithstanding recruitment and retention challenges, the number of consultants employed in the public health services has increased by 118 in the 12 months to end August 2018 and by 479 in the past five years.
‘The out-patient waiting list remains a big challenge. August 2018 waiting list figures show 514,585 waiting for a first outpatient appointment.’
He added: ‘While the total numbers on the out patients department waiting list continues to grow, the figures show that a targeted approach by the HSE and hospital groups in late 2017 and into 2018 has impacted on the level of growth.’
‘January-August 2017 saw growth of 52,000 in total numbers. In comparison, the period January-August 2018 saw reduced growth of 13,785 new patients added to the list.