News

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said that the Government must end the discrimination against new entrant Consultants before public hospital care and the population that depends upon it are irreparably damaged. The IHCA President, Dr Donal O’Hanlon, has taken the exceptional action of outlining the stark realities in letters to the Taoiseach, Ministers for Health, Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and the main political party leaders and spokespersons on health, finance and expenditure. Dr O’Hanlon said that our acute hospital and mental health services will increasingly fail our patients due to the large number of approved permanent consultant posts that cannot be filled as a consequence of the discriminatory salary cuts imposed by the State on new entrant Consultants. 

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The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has said that it welcomes the confirmation in the Public Service Pay Commission Report of the significant crisis in the recruitment and retention of hospital consultants.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association notes the publication today of the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy by the Minister for Health, Simon Harris. The IHCA believes that the Sláintecare Report is inherently flawed as it fails to provide sufficient solutions for the biggest capacity deficits in our acute hospitals. There is a critical shortage of hospital beds, consultants, other frontline staff and equipment which is impeding our ability to care for patients. The proposal to introduce 2,600 new beds over the next 15 years is insufficient and fails to immediately address the very urgent needs of patients who need access to care in our acute hospitals. The Minister and the HSE need to set out a very clear timetable as to how these shortages, including the insufficient number of consultants, will be addressed over the next five years otherwise we will continue to see unacceptable and growing waiting lists and delays in providing care to the population that depend on our public hospital services.

9 July, 2018: The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) today released the results of a survey of 317 recently appointed  Consultant members that confirms acute hospital and mental health services face an escalating and unprecedented consultant recruitment and retention crisis due to ongoing blatant discrimination by the State and health service employers against new hospital Consultants.

Dr Donal O’Hanlon announced as new President of the IHCA

15 June, 2018: The Irish Hospital Consultants Association said that today’s High Court settlement, is an important and essential development in order to ensure the delivery of high quality care to patients in the public health service.

25 May, 2018: An Irish Hospital Consultants Association delegation, led by Dr Tom Ryan, President of the IHCA, recently met with the Public Service Pay Commission to present irrefutable evidence that the prolonged consultant recruitment and retention crisis is deteriorating and undermining the provision of care to patients. The discussions supplemented and reinforced the contents of the Association’s submission to the Commission in November 2017 on the extent of the crisis.

Thursday, 26th April 2018: The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has today strongly welcomed the Joint Committee’s recommendations on the Future of Mental Health Care, as they are essential to provide much improved and more timely care to those who depend on the current under-resourced Mental Health Services.

Sunday, 15th April 2018: The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has called on Minister Harris to urgently address the appointment of non-specialist doctors to specialist consultant posts as it is compromising patient safety and care.