Irish hospitals are facing a major manpower crisis because of new requirements by the Medical Council for foreign doctors, the IMO has warned. The number of non-EU junior doctors will "inevitably reduce" with the introduction of a new and expensive examination by the Medical Council.
At present more than 1,000 of Ireland's 2,600 non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) are non-EU graduates. They represent up to 90 per cent of junior doctors in many hospitals outside the main university hospitals in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
The IMO warned that unless specific provisions were made to facilitate the continued involvement of non-EU doctors in the Irish hospital system, services woul suffer as a result of the impending manpower crisis.
In a motion to the meeting the IMO consultants' committee said it viewed with grave concern the developing situation and called for active negotiation with the Department of Health.
The meeting also heard concerns from family doctors about the childhood immunisation scheme. A motion calling for an urgent review of the scheme was unanimously passed. In some areas of the country, the rate of immunisation is as low as 60 per cent.
Dr James O'Reilly, a Dublin GP, said blame for the low take-up was being placed unfairly on family doctors. "This is an area which requires urgent review. GPs can and do deliver an excellent service," he said.
Two years ago a new scheme was introduced to put responsibility for vaccination for the main childhood diseases with family doctors. There was strong criticism of health boards who were unable to tell family doctors whether or not they had reached their targets. Dr Ollie White, a Westport GP, said he had asked the Western Health Board on numerous occasions if he had reached target. "They can't tell me because they do not have the figures," he said.
Dr Cormac Macnamara, a Waterford GP, said it was an "outrageous criticism" to blame GPs. "There is not a scintilla of evidence to back this up. Some health boards are still not in a position to put proper back-up in place for the scheme."