SHORTAGES OF junior doctors may soon result in a number of hospitals having to close their emergency departments or limit their opening hours, it was claimed yesterday.
The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM), which represents consultants working in emergency medicine, said some hospitals have severe difficulties recruiting non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs), sometimes referred to as “junior doctors”, to staff their emergency units.
Some units, it added, are consistently unable to fill shifts with doctors of the necessary experience to safely manage patients.
“While this problem is at its most acute in Naas General Hospital; Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe; Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar; Kerry General Hospital, Tralee; and Letterkenny General Hospital, almost every emergency department in the country has been unable to recruit its full complement of medical staff,” it said in a statement.
“Where there are alternative emergency departments in reasonable proximity, it may now be necessary for hospitals that cannot safely staff their emergency departments to close or limit their opening hours.
“Arrangements will have to be made to transfer patients elsewhere outside these hours. While this may appear to be a disproportionate response to the problem, the reality is that some of these emergency departments cannot be guaranteed to provide safe care for patients,” it added.
The number of junior doctors applying for posts in hospitals across the State which fell vacant in January dropped by more than half in some instances, when compared with a year earlier.
The drop in applications has been attributed to a change in visa requirements for non-EU doctors, as well as the fact that more Irish-trained junior doctors seem to be emigrating.
Dr James Binchy, of the IAEM, said there were junior doctor shortages across a range of specialities but the situation was most critical in emergency departments. Around one-fifth of junior doctor posts in emergency medicine were vacant, he said.
He stressed the recruitment embargo was not the issue. It was the fact that Irish doctors were going abroad for better work and training conditions and also the fact that it was now more difficult for overseas doctors to get registered here. In addition a lot of posts were no longer recognised for training and doctors therefore had to be fully registered to apply for them.
Junior doctors rotate between jobs every six months and the next rotation begins on July 1st, by which time the IAEM says it fears the situation will have deteriorated further. The IAEM says it is imperative the Health Service Executive (HSE) decides now where it is going to provide safe 24-hour emergency services for the population.
If some emergency departments have to be closed or have their opening hours restricted, the emergency departments that will have to attend to their workload must be given the infrastructural and staffing facilities to provide a safe service, Dr Binchy said.
The HSE maintained it is fully aware of the staffing situations in hospital emergency departments in some parts of the country and was working closely with individual hospitals to address their needs in this area.
It said a recruitment drive for a new intake of NCHDs is under way “and a number of other initiatives are being considered to specifically address the situation to ensure that hospital emergency departments continue to offer a high level of care to all patients”.
It is putting in place “a number of processes to address the issues presenting on a short-, medium- and long-term basis”, it added.