ONLY FIVE of the 32 emergency departments at hospitals across the State will have sufficient junior doctors to operate a normal level of service in three weeks unless additional recruits can be found, it was claimed yesterday.
The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine, which represents consultants working in emergency departments, conducted a survey of all hospitals on Monday. It found only the three Dublin children’s hospitals as well as Cavan General Hospital and St Joseph’s Hospital, Clonmel, had a full complement of staff in place for July 11th when junior doctors rotate posts as part of their training.
Its president, Fergal Hickey, a consultant at Sligo General, said unless solutions were found within days patients would have to wait longer for treatment in all other hospital emergency departments next month and some units may have to restrict their opening hours if they could not staff a 24-hour rota.
He said there may have been an assumption the shortage of junior doctors was something which only affected smaller hospitals but the survey proved this was not the case. None of the emergency departments at Dublin’s main hospitals had a full complement of staff in place for July 11th at this stage.
The survey found that, as of now, emergency departments will be short 77 junior doctors on that date. Other sections of hospitals are also likely to be short of staff.
Mr Hickey said the hospital emergency departments projected to have major staffing problems next month based on the survey were Letterkenny, Navan, Portlaoise, Wexford, Mayo, Ballinasloe, Limerick Regional, Drogheda, Naas, Tullamore and Cork University Hospital.
He said the main problem was Irish doctors were emigrating, and doctors coming from abroad to work here were finding it increasingly difficult to get registered.
The HSE said, given its recruitment process was still ongoing, “it is too early to identify the extent to which hospitals will be affected by vacancies on July 11th”.
Nevertheless it said it began contingency planning in case there were shortages earlier this year and these plans remained under constant review “in what is an evolving situation”.
It also said the HSE had undertaken a significant overseas recruitment campaign in India and Pakistan. “The HSE is working closely with the Irish Medical Council regarding the registration process for these individuals so that they can be placed within the Irish hospital system as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, Roscommon Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten, who this week said he was concerned the HSE was planning to remove around-the-clock emergency services from Roscommon County Hospital due to junior doctor shortages, said he had discussed his concerns with Minister for Health James Reilly.
He said he understood, after meeting Dr Reilly, that the overall junior doctor shortfall would be about 180 on July 11th – not 400 as previously suggested – and efforts were underway to see if some of the doctors from India and Pakistan could be brought into the country by then. Dr Reilly is due to hold a meeting with the HSE today to discuss solutions to the crisis.
Separately, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said it was greatly concerned at worsening overcrowding in emergency departments across the northeast. There were 52 patients on trolleys at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, yesterday and the INMO said this could get worse due to junior doctor shortages.