THE NUMBER of consultant radiologists working in Irish hospitals is well below international norms, according to a survey published yesterday.
Conducted by the faculty of radiologists at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the study found up to 100 extra consultant radiologists are needed in 28 hospitals which took part in the review to bring them up to appropriate international benchmarks.
The survey comes just a year after it emerged a shortage of consultant radiologists at Tallaght hospital, Dublin, contributed to nearly 58,000 X-rays going unreported at the hospital between 2006 and 2009. Consultants had been writing to hospital management about the problem since 2003.
Dean of the faculty of radiologists Dr Aidan Brady said yesterday that staffing at Tallaght, which had improved since an independent review chaired by Dr Maurice Hayes was published last year, “would have been towards one end” of a bell curve “rather than in the middle”. He indicated that the hospital was not the absolute worst, “but they would have had more difficulty in terms of staffing numbers than a lot of other hospitals”.
The Hayes report recommended a review of radiologist staffing levels in other hospitals across the country.
The survey by the faculty of radiologists has completed this work and it found there were huge variations in staffing levels in radiology departments in 2009. Some had less than half the number of radiologists they needed, while others had few if any staffing deficits.
The names of the 28 hospitals which participated in the research in May 2010 are anonymous in the report. Dr Brady said this was because the survey was aimed at getting robust data rather than creating a league table.
The study also found radiologists, on average, spend about one-third of their time doing work that is not counted when the workload of radiology departments is assessed to establish if they need additional staffing.
Traditionally, the work counted includes numbers of X-rays and other scans reported but they also spend hours preparing for, and participating, in multidisciplinary team meetings, teaching and formal administrative work.
The report says this “non-counted” work needs to be taken into consideration in the future by those involved in workforce planning and consultant appointments committees.
The findings of the survey were presented to the Health Service Executive in recent days.
Asked how radiology departments were coping without required staffing levels and if there was a danger of other radiology backlogs developing as a result, Dr Brady indicated staff were working long hours.
“I’m not aware of reaccumulating backlogs anywhere and I would hope they’re not happening,” he said.
The report warns that “maintenance of safe radiology services to patients cannot be achieved in the absence of adequate resources”.
The HSE said an additional 22 consultant posts have been put in place since 2009. It added that the study will now be repeated across all hospitals, taking these new appointments and up to date workloads into account.
“The HSE will work to prioritise and address identified deficits within the context of current funding restrictions,” it added.