Health Minister James Reilly struck a triumphant note at the recent Joint Oireachtas Committee meeting on health in declaring that “excellent progress” has been made in filling vacant NCHD posts over the past three months.
In a way it has: Only 10 of the 190 posts identified by the HSE before the recruitment of doctors from India and Pakistan were vacant as of September 29. Some 259 NCHDs have been appointed from centralised recruitment and a further 231 Indian and Pakistani doctors have been registered. The gaping hole in our junior doctor services that many people predicated has been filled through the contingency measures adopted by the HSE, in association with the Medical Council. Yet, anybody who has followed the situation over recent months know it has not run smoothly.
The centralised recruitment campaign, has been criticised for excluding smaller hospitals and certain specialities. There has also been tension between the Medical Council and the HSE over the registration of the new recruits. Ultimately this resulted in the hasty creation of a Supervised Register in order to expedite the process. But contradictory messages were being given by both bodies during the recruitment campaign. At the committee meeting, Senator Colm Burke said that the Medical Council and Mr Andrew Condon, general manager of the HSE’s office of the National Director of Human Resources, wrote to a group of doctors in India and Pakistan on August 5 advising them not to travel to Ireland, while on August 9, medical manpower manager with the HSE, income. The registration of the doctors who have taken and passed their exams was also held up due to the requirement for the HSE to submit a declaration for each doctor, outlining the nature of the post, the duties the doctor will be charged with and the supervisory arrangements which will be in place. Senator Burke rightly argued for “joined-up thinking” between the Medical Council, HSE and the Department in dealing with these issues.
With this in mind, the Council and HSE have developed a joint agreement document governing the registration of doctors to the supervised division of the register. This is welcome, and will hopefully make the process smoother in the future. Yet, the centralised, and the international recruitment is only a small part of rectifying the NCHD vacancy issue. Senator and Professor John Crown referred to the HSE’s response to filling vacancies as a “band aid”. Clearly the creation of a more structured career path for junior doctors needs to be a priority. The Minister’s plan to create a specialist grade is one way of making career paths more sustainable and attractive for NCHDs. Action on the issue is long overdue. Getting our junior doctors to stay in the country, rather than relying on those recruited from abroad, will be a major challenge for the Minister and the HSE.
Comments
After sending them back to home new recruits will be selected for 2 years, trained in Irish system and then they will again sent back to home.
This is ridiculous and wastage of Tax payers money. I suggest that after 2 years of their contract these doctors should be retained in Ireland, so that our system can benefit and we can save money. As our country desperately needs not only doctors but also money.
Health Minister should consider this scenario.
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