IHCA Statement on Minister Harris's submission to the Committee on the Future of Healthcare
IHCA Statement on Minister Harris's submission to the Committee on the Future of Healthcare
Wednesday 22nd March 2017: The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has welcomed the proposal by the Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, to align the hospital groups and community health organisations. The IHCA has said that the proposal, which was made in the Minister’s submission to the Committee on the Future of Healthcare, will improve integration of primary and secondary care.
Commenting on the proposal Dr Tom Ryan, IHCA President, said that healthcare decisions and leadership should be directly linked with patient care and thus the move to confer more autonomy on hospital groups is also to be welcomed.
However, Dr Ryan added that there is an overwhelming and pressing need to expand the frontline capacity in our acute hospital and mental health services as this is the main obstacle preventing consultants from providing care to patients without delays. “Any realistic strategy needs to significantly increase the number of acute and ICU beds, operating theatre capacity as well as increasing the number of consultants. These are the main constraints that are resulting in the cancellation of surgical appointments and driving the exponential increase in waiting lists.”
Dr Ryan said he is surprised that the Minister did not discuss his thinking about possible changes to consultant contract terms when an IHCA delegation met with him last Thursday (16 March). “The reality is the Irish Health Service has over 400 permanent hospital consultant vacancies (15% of the total). These vacancies have arisen because the State and health service employers have not honoured prior contracts they have entered into with over 2,500 hospital consultants.”
He said the persistent breaches of contract terms and the discrimination against new entrant consultants by the State and employers has undermined their credibility. If this is not addressed and trust restored it will exacerbate the ongoing consultant recruitment and retention crisis. The failure to address the contract breaches is driving consultants to resign from their permanent consultant posts in increasing numbers to practice medicine elsewhere.
ENDS
For further information contact:
James Dunny, FleishmanHillard – 086 388 3903
Fiona Murphy, FleishmanHillard - 087 819 4464