Health agency looks to Pakistan and India to solve doctor shortage
EITHNE DONNELLAN
BACKGROUND : Irish-trained doctors are emigrating because of long hours, pay cuts and poor career prospects
THE CURRENT shortage of junior doctors in the Irish healthcare system didn’t just happen overnight.
The shortages have been well known about since at least 2009 but the fact that they have worsened to a point where even large hospitals like the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick may have difficulty keeping its emergency department open from next month has helped focus fresh attention on the problem.
Reasons for the shortages are multifaceted but undoubtedly one factor is young Irish-trained doctors are leaving for Australia and other countries in greater numbers because of long working hours, pay cuts, lack of protected training time and little prospect of career advancement. They have a one in four chance of going on to be consultants.
Added to that is the fact that in the last couple of years it has became more awkward for non-EU doctors – which a 2007 audit by the Royal College of Physicians found accounted for in excess of 50 per cent of all junior doctors working as registrars or senior house officers in hospitals in Ireland – to get into the country and register to work here.
In 2009 their visas were restricted so they would have to be renewed every six months, though this has now been changed to every two years.
Then changes to the Medical Council registration process under the 2007 Medical Practitioners Act, which came into effect in 2009, meant they had to get a higher mark in their English language exam – a change also since reversed – and had to pass what’s called the Pres exam, which includes a 2½-hour multiple choice question exam to test their medical knowledge as well as a 3½-hour examination of their clinical skills. This exam is only held in Ireland.
About 4,600 junior doctors are needed to staff our hospitals and most of them rotate jobs every six months as part of their training schemes, so they get six months’ experience in paediatrics, another six months in surgery, psychiatry and obstetrics and so on.
Of the more than 4,000 junior doctor posts in the system, about 3,650 or 80 per cent are in training posts accredited by colleges such as the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
The 1,000 non-training posts have traditionally been the ones which proved more difficult to fill – though more than half of these are now staffed by doctors on contracts of indefinite duration – but this year even training posts are proving less attractive to applicants. Eunan Friel, managing director of surgical affairs at the royal college, said that to date 219 out of a total of 255 places across the three years of its basic surgical training scheme have been filled, leaving 36 vacant.
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He is considering this option but must exercise caution so as to ensure patient safety is not put at risk. The Irish Medical Organisation is meanwhile urging the HSE to take steps to retain Irish doctors in the system rather than focusing on overseas
is receiving attention at the highest level and we are engaged with all the parties including the medical colleges which oversee the training of junior doctors, the Medical Council, the Department of Health and Children and the Minister for Health.
AN IRISH-TRAINED doctor pinched the nipples of one of his patients in a manner that may have been “sadistic”, an Irish Medical Council fitness to practice hearing heard yesterday. South-African born Dr Rashid Motala, who qualified from the Royal
An Irish Medical Council fitness to practice hearing has heard that, an Irish-trained, doctor pinched the nipples of one of his patients in a manner described as “sadistic." According to reports in the Irish Times, South African-born, Dr Rashid Motala,
MORE THAN 440 doctors based in India and Pakistan would be willing to come and fill vacant junior doctor posts in Irish hospitals but for obstacles put in their way by the Medical Council, a Health Service Executive (HSE) manager has claimed.
Doctor faces Medical Council inquiry | Irish Free Press
A doctor who qualified in Pakistan is facing a two-day Medical Council inquiry into allegations of professional misconduct over the care of patients.
Dr Abid Hussain, with an address in Dublin, came to work in Northern Ireland in 2009 and also worked in Britain as a non-consultant hospital doctor.
He was employed at Antrim Hospital in 2009 and also earlier at Bucknall Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent.
He is defending himself at this inquiry.
The inquiry has been told that a probe in Britain by the General Medical Council in 2010 found that Dr Hussain was guilty of professional misconduct, due to deficient professional performance.
Among the allegations were claims that he was not available on a hospital ward during an emergency and that he failed to deal with a patient responsibly, after a 17-year-old patient had a CT scan.
He was suspended from practice for six months.
The Irish Medical Council inquiry is examining if Dr Hussain is fit to work here.
No complaints have been made to the Medical Council here concerning his conduct.
Keywords: medical councilArticle source: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0526/hussaina.
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