Vacant consultant posts in North West
SINN Féin Councillor Chris MacManus has raised serious concern over figures received from the HSE which shows there are six vacant consultant posts in Sligo University Hospital.
Some of the six vacant posts specialise in General Medicine and Radiology.
A seventh vacant consultancy post in the Sligo area relates to Child & Adolescent Psychiatry services. Councillor MacManus said: “For some time now, hospital consultants and their representatives have been saying that there is a recruitment and retention crisis within the profession; and the figures released to Sinn Féin regarding vacancy rates for consultants prove not only that this crisis is very real but, that it affects nearly every hospital, including Sligo University Hospital.
‘ The figures forwarded to my office show that there are at least 349 vacant consultant posts across the State. In some areas and hospitals, the vacancy rates are beyond worrying.
“Here in SUH there are six vacant consultant posts in important specialities such as Radiology, Microbiology, Dermatology and Histopathology and two in General Medicine. Indeed, SUH has the second highest rate of consultant vacancy within the Saolta Hospital Group after Galway University Hospital.
“A seventh consultant vacancy within local HSE services relates to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. This is an area where there are over 2,700 children waiting to be seen by CAMHS across the state and it is now confirmed that there are a staggering 13 vacant consultant posts including one based here in Sligo.
“The HSE has tried every way to get around this problem, including employing doctors not on the specialist register as consultants and employing locum/agency consultants; but papering over the cracks and short-term solutions are not working.
“No one can question that there is a recruitment and retention crisis affecting consultants. A swift plan is needed to address the situation as this ongoing rate of vacancies is dangerous for patients and further eroding morale with frontline staff in the HSE.