New data reveals worsening hospital staffing crisis as 837 Consultant posts now remain unfilled

• New data analysis shows number of unfilled consultant posts rises to 837 – an increase of 15% in less than a year; 
• More than a fifth (22%) of all consultant posts are now vacant or filled on a temporary basis;
• Number of vacant Consultant posts has increased by a quarter in less than a year; temporary/locum posts have increased by a fifth;
• 896,600 people on some form of public hospital waiting list; over 99,000 of these are children; 
• Consultants call for the immediate appointment of an agreed Independent Chair to allow for the urgent resumption of contract talks and the reversal of the Government’s 2012 Consultant pay discrimination.

IHCA President Prof Alan Irvine: “The fact that now over 800 posts cannot be filled as needed is an unequivocal signal to Government and health service management that the current conditions in Ireland’s system do not create an environment that skilled medical and surgical specialists want to work in...as a result, Irish patients are not getting the hospital and mental health treatment that they need.”

New data from the HSE has revealed that the number of approved Consultant posts that are vacant or filled on a temporary, locum or agency basis has reached an all-time high of 837 posts.

This means that more than a fifth (22%) of all permanent Consultant posts are now not filled as needed, which is an increase of 110 posts, or 15%, since May 2021. 

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has today (21 March 2022) said that this latest vacancy data is a cause for serious concern, amid worries of the impact of Consultant staffing shortages on the delivery of health services and the quality of patient care. 

The Association has reiterated the urgent need for the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, to re-establish the contract talks, which have stalled since last December, under an Independent Chair agreed with the representative organisations to oversee negotiations. 

The new HSE figures,* analysed by the IHCA, confirm that as of 7 February 2022 a total of 412 permanent Consultant posts are vacant, with an additional 5 posts of unknown status and likely vacant. This is an increase of an additional 81 vacant Consultant posts, or 24%, over the past 9 months.**

A further 354 permanent Consultant posts are currently filled by temporary or locum Consultants - an increase of 20% (+59 posts) on the number in May 2021. In addition, 66 posts are currently filled on an agency basis. 

The increase in the number of Consultant posts vacant or filled on a temporary or agency over the past year is as follows:

The specialties with the largest number of approved Consultant posts filled on a temporary/locum or agency basis are: 

• Medicine - 99 posts;
• Psychiatry - 63 posts;
• Surgery - 61 posts;
• Anaesthesiology - 37 posts.

Of the 66 approved Consultant posts filled by agency staff, half (33 posts) are in Psychiatry.

The worsening consultant recruitment and retention crisis comes as almost 900,000 people — equivalent to 18% of the population of Ireland — are on some form of hospital waiting list published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).** 

More than 240,000 are waiting longer than a year for an outpatient appointment, inpatient/day case procedure or a GI (Gastrointestinal) scope. Of these, over 150,000 have been waiting longer than 18 months to be assessed by a hospital consultant. 

Commenting on today’s consultant vacancy figures, IHCA President Professor Alan Irvine, said:

“The fact that now over 800 posts cannot be filled as needed is an unequivocal signal to Government and health service management that the current conditions in Ireland’s system do not create an environment that skilled medical and surgical specialists want to work in. 

“This new data confirms that the capacity of our public hospitals to provide quality, timely care to patients is seriously lacking. Without a sufficient number of permanent specialist consultants in post to assess and treat patients, waiting times and lists will get longer and longer, as evident from the fact that 54 people were added to public hospital waiting lists every single day over the past year.

“Short-term measures to temporarily fill gaps in essential Consultant staffing is both expensive and unreliable. Medical agency costs have more than doubled. 

“Whatever theoretical saving was envisaged in the 2012 discriminatory cut has proven to be a false economy, generating massive ongoing costs for the taxpayer equivalent to hundreds of millions of euros per year. 

“More importantly, Irish patients are not getting the hospital and mental health treatment that they need; they are simply being added to an ever-increasing waiting list, which is leading to poorer outcomes for patients.

“There are two immediate steps needed to stem the growing vacancies and help tackle patient waiting times.

“Firstly, the Government must appoint a new Independent Chair, agreed with the representative organisations, to oversee the new Consultant contract negotiations, which have stalled with no engagement since last December. 

“Secondly, the Government must end the 2012 Consultant pay disparity immediately. The approach it has taken over the past decade has severely undermined trust and is driving our highly trained medical and surgical specialists abroad, leaving our patients without access to the care they need and deserve.”

ENDS 

Notes to editors: 
* HSE PQ response to Deputy David Cullinane, 10 February 2022: https://www.hse.ie/eng/about/personalpq/pq/2022-pq-responses/january-2022/pq-4011-22-david-cullinane.pdf
** HSE PQ response to Deputy David Cullinane, 16 September 2021: https://www.hse.ie/eng/about/personalpq/pq/2021-pq-responses/september-2021/pq-43289-21-david-cullinane.pdf
*** Latest NTFP waiting list data as at 24 February 2022: https://www.ntpf.ie/home/nwld.htm

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