THE ACCIDENT and emergency department at Mercy University Hospital in Cork is “struggling to stay open”, according to Dr Chris Luke, a consultant in emergency medicine at the hospital.
The departure of 300-400 foreign medical staff in the past four months has resulted in staffing deficiencies at AE departments.
A shortage of junior doctors and locums almost forced the hospital’s AE unit to close last week and this week, Dr Luke said. Some 270 non-consultant positions are vacant nationwide, leaving gaps in teams working in AE units.
“The Mercy was almost forced to close last week and is struggling to stay open again this week. There are grave difficulties in staffing the departments and teams are stretched thinner and thinner,” he said.
“It’s been coming for years and the powers that be were warned well in advance, but now we find ourselves in a very serious situation,” he added. While reliance on the overseas market for doctors is partly to blame, Dr Luke said opening up AEs to first-year doctors could improve the situation.
“We could fill the gaps partially with interns – first-year doctors. There is an opportunity here to not export them but use them in AE departments,” he said.
The hospital said it had a full complement of junior doctors. It had been “briefly impacted by a well-publicised national shortage of junior doctors, but this issue has been fully addressed and the hospital is very happy that services can proceed as normal”.