Madam, - I was delighted to read Mary Robinson's recent comments on the need for change in society to allow women graduates to combine career and family. This is very true of doctors in training.
There have been higher numbers of Irish women than men in training ( in our hospitals since 1994 and this trend continues to increase. But postgraduate training structures have not been adapted to meet the needs of families. Women, in particular, frequently have to choose between having a family or completing postgraduate medical training in their speciality of choice. Postgraduate medical training for a consultant in Ireland lasts 14 years on average. During this period non-consultant hospital doctors must pass very competitive examinations, frequently work 70 hours or more each week on six-month contracts and are required to move home for six monthly placements to fulfil the requirements of their training schemes. It is very difficult for the best functioning family to rear children under these conditions. How could a lone parent manage?
Postgraduate medical training has been under-resourced for decades. It is inefficient and its improvement should be a priority for the Health Service Executive. While there is currently much discussion about increasing the number of undergraduate places in medical schools, a significant number of qualified doctors simply cannot take up postgraduate training for family reasons and their talent and experience is being wasted. In the UK flexible training has been available since the 1970s and is available at all work grades. Here in Ireland it is practically possible only at the "specialist registrar" grade (the highest training grade and the only grade where male doctors are in the majority). A "Flexible Training Strategy" was prepared by the National Task Force on Medical Staffing in 2003. Is this now gathering dust? Perhaps women doctors are just too tired and busy to strive for the change needed in their working and training conditions. - Yours, etc,
Dr BRÍDÍN CANNON, Ardfoyle Crescent, Ballintemple, Cork.
Madam, - If Mary Robinson herself had "copped out", Ireland would have been deprived of its first lady president and we Irish citizens would have been the poorer for it. - Yours, etc,
MARY RIGNEY, Stepaside, Dublin 18.