IHCA comment on additional medical intern posts and postgraduate training places

Commenting on today’s government announcement of additional medical intern posts and postgraduate training places, Irish Hospital Consultants Association President, Prof Alan Irvine, said:

“The addition of 120 medical intern posts plus postgraduate training places and fellowships from this July is welcome. Medical graduates are critical to our health service both today and into the future, so ensuring we can provide them with attractive career pathways is essential.

“We note the commitment made by Minister Donnelly to aligning with and delivering on medical workforce planning to meet the demands on our health system. While going some way towards addressing the capacity needs of the future, we must now see the same commitment to address the deficits of today – that is filling the 728 permanent hospital consultant posts in our public system.

“Consultants working in acute public hospitals are under immense pressure and must be provided the ability to support the training and progression of junior colleagues. This can only be achieved by immediately filling the 728 permanent positions which are currently vacant or temporarily filled and alleviating strains on the system overall.

“With some 877,000 people currently waiting for care, meaningful progress to tackle waiting lists can only be achieved by recruiting fully trained, acute hospital consultants. Anything less, once again, avoids getting to the crux of the issue.”

ENDS

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