Recruitment freeze ‘enormous strain’ warns incoming IMO President

The HSE recruitment freeze is  “posing enormous strain” on the Irish health service, the incoming IMO President has warned.

Donegal GP Dr Denis McCauley was speaking as the IMO AGM begins today in Killarney, Co Kerry. The meeting will run until Sunday 7 April.

“The current HSE recruitment freeze is exacerbating problems and posing enormous strain on a system already under pressure,” he said.  “Growing population and longer life expectancy demands greater investment in health infrastructure and workforce to meet the needs of patients and this is simply not happening at the speed that is required.”

Dr McCauley warned that there is a crisis of funding in the health service and “a step change” is needed that allows rapid and significant funding in infrastructure and workforce.

He added that there are “too few” doctors. “Of course, there will be new grades within the health system such as physician associates (PAs).  They have their own role to play, in line with their training, but they cannot replace doctors.” 

He said there “have been a number of controversies” in the NHS arising from the growing use of PAs “in place of doctors as opposed to in a supporting role to doctors so if they are to be deployed in the Irish system, it is vital that their role is regulated and limited”.

 The meeting will be addressed (Friday) by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and (Saturday) by HSE CEO Mr Bernard Gloster.

Dr McCauley said: “We want to ensure that patients are at the centre of the delivery of healthcare, but we must have enough doctors in the system to diagnose and treat them. There is a global shortage of doctors, and we must redouble our efforts to ensure we are enabling doctors to do the job for which they have trained for so long – that means a work environment that is well resourced and has the capacity to meet the needs of patients.”