€140,000 overtime for doctor

ONE JUNIOR doctor received more than €140,000 in overtime payments last year, as junior doctors accounted for the top 30 recipients of overtime pay in the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Figures provided in response to a Freedom of Information request show that the specialist registrar based in the southwest received the top amount for overtime worked last year, at €142,896.

The top 10 recipients received an aggregate €1.1 million. Overall, the HSE’s overtime bill shrank by 12 per cent from €219 million to €192 million.

Fine Gael Health spokesman, Dr James Reilly, said yesterday that the €142,896 in overtime “is a ridiculous amount and is as a result of a failure to roster junior doctors appropriately”.

Labour Health spokeswoman, Jan O’Sullivan, said: “My real concern in relation to these long hours is the safety implications for doctors and their patients. There is still a very high dependency on overtime and the moratorium on recruitment has a lot to do with it.”

According to member of the Irish Medical Organisation’s (IMO’s) Non-Consultant-Hospital Doctor (NCHD) Committee, Dr Anthony O’Connor: “There is no option but to work the hours in order for the 51 acute hospitals located across the country to operate on a 24/7 basis. The doctors have to be paid for the long hours worked.

“It is instructive that the HSE can’t get junior doctors to fill the jobs, as junior doctors are turning their backs on the service to have a better quality of life, better training and better prospects of career advancement,” he said.

“These junior doctors can work in New Zealand, where they work a 48-hour week and have a better lifestyle.”

Dr O’Connor said he had recently worked a “harrowing” 105-hour week and that he was rostered to work from 8am Wednesday to 7pm Thursday. “After 24 hours, it is difficult to function.”

On average, he works 60-65 hours per week. “There is no choice: it is required as part of our training that we work ‘x’ number of nights on call.”

A HSE statement last night read: “The majority of these high overtime earners are registrars working in smaller sites where they may be on-call every second or third night and, likewise, every second or third weekend.

“While the intensity of the activity at these sites may not be sufficiently high to warrant additional NCHDs, these hours are required to maintain full 24-hour emergency services, seven days per week.”