Hundreds of vacant doctor posts and impact of Covid-19 will lead to ‘crazy’ hospital waiting lists, warns IMO
Quarterly figures published by the HSE show that 273 consultant posts were vacant across the health service at the end of June
Hundreds of vacant hospital doctor posts and the suspension of planned treatment during the Covid-19 pandemic will lead to “crazy” waiting lists this winter, the Irish Medical Organisation has warned.
Quarterly figures published by the HSE show that 273 consultant posts were vacant across the health service at the end of June, the majority of which were across hospitals (234).
The South / South West Hospital Group, which serves Cork, Waterford, Kerry and Tipperary, had the highest number of vacancies at 54, with Cork University Hospital having 23 consultant vacancies — the highest number of vacancies at any hospital.
A high number of vacancies was also evident at Children’s Health Ireland Crumlin (19), Beaumont Hospital (17), Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (16) and University Hospital Waterford (14).
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) claims the number of consultant vacancies is closer to 500, as many of the 'filled' posts include temporary or locum doctors.
Professor Anthony O'Connor, a member of the IMO consultant committee, said Ireland had the lowest number of consultants and fourth lowest number of hospital beds in Europe going into the pandemic and was now facing waiting lists of up to 800,000 patients.
“For a country the size of Ireland we should have over 200 orthopaedic surgeons. We have 99 and we have over 70,000 people waiting for orthopaedic treatment,” Dr O’Connor told the
"We should have 140 eye surgeons; we have 41 and there are 50,000 people on that waiting list and there are busses going up from West Cork to Belfast to get cataracts done,” he said.
“So you can draw fairly straight lines from where we are completely understaffed to where we have vacancies to where people are suffering on waiting lists,” he added.
The gastroenterologist based at Tallaght hospital warned that “crazy” waiting lists are likely this winter given the level of vacancies and impact of Covid-19.
“Elective care has been shut down for nearly six months now. Every speciality is going to have a crazy waiting list going forward,” Dr O’Connor said.
To cope this winter, the IMO has proposed “fixing” the 2012 consultant contract issue to get recruitment back to a “sustainable level”, providing extra locum positions to clear growing waiting lists, and securing additional capacity through temporary modular builds.
The Department of Health intended to roll out a new ‘public-only’ consultant contract this year but new posts continue to be offered under the 2012 contract.
“While the immediate response to Covid from the health service was very good and we are very proud to be part of that, there have not been any moves to fix the structural weaknesses in the system on a medium to long-term basis,” Dr O'Connor said.
The new ‘public only’ contract, he added, was welcome as a “very serious offer” but doctors need to see the “small print” before the issue can be progressed.
The South/ South West Hospital Group was not available for comment at the time of publishing.
