Blow for UHG as HSE rules out extending medic scheme

The HSE is planning to cut by 15 the number of newly-qualified doctors it employs as interns at University Hospital Galway this July – as the Coronavirus pandemic rages on.

Last April, then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced the creation of 300-plus new intern positions in Irish hospitals, allowing all graduating doctors to take up positions on the frontline of the Covid crisis for one year.

But Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and the HSE has indicated that the posts will not be offered to the class of 2021, meaning UHG will be short 15 intern doctors in four months when compared with last July.

“Our hope was that the HSE would continue on with the increased intern doctor numbers this year, because Covid-19 is still ongoing and we have over 800,000 people nationwide on waiting lists, and we still have a need for frontline doctors.

“Unfortunately the plan is to cut these additional doctors being made available. Across the country there are 300 intern jobs being cut, including 15 in Galway and more in Mayo and Roscommon and in every hospital,” Dr Cormac Duff of Keep Our Doctors Campaign told the Connacht Tribune.

Dr Duff, a Dublin native who commences work in Paediatrics at UHG this coming summer, said at least 15 doctor graduates of NUIG – many of them from overseas who have been here for between four and six years – will have to leave Ireland for work.

Most will not return, he said.

“It’s incredibly short-sighted. In Ireland we train more doctors than any other European country per capita. We train them to a world-class standard and any health system in the world is delighted to take our doctors on because they know how excellent their training is. We have a shortage of doctors in Ireland and yet we train more. It makes absolute sense to keep these doctors in Ireland,” Dr Duff said.

He insisted that the interns were needed – particularly because Covid-19 is still with us, and has created lengthy waiting lists for a range of care specialties.

“It’s a purely financial decision. The cost of the 300 interns across the country is about €9 million. Even though the HSE has promised much more than that to keep 2020 staffing levels across all health professionals, they are planning to get rid of those doctors this summer for financial reasons, regardless of the cost to patients and the increased workload and hours for other doctors,” he said.

Opposition TDs have rowed in behind the campaign to get Minister Donnelly and the HSE to reverse the decision and to allow these doctors, to “stay and continue to serve the country they have come to call home”.

An online petition had garnered almost 5,000 signatures this week.

“I think it’s an incredibly unfair and unjust position. Our health service will be left ever more understaffed – and most importantly, our patients will suffer,” added Dr Duff.

A HSE spokesperson said: “At the height of Covid-19 intern numbers were increased to deal with the service pressures. This increase was an emergency measure in direct response to the Pandemic and it was not planned and was never intended to be sustained.

As we are coming out of the third wave of Covid and facing increased waiting lists and other challenges the focus is on ensuring we have the appropriate staff to deal with the impact of Covid. As part of the planned investment in additional staffing, services and infrastructure the HSE will be investing in additional staffing in 2021.

The national number of medical internship posts available for July 2021 has reverted to 734, which is the standard annual intake in line with current workforce planning projections. Intern places are determined by workforce planning requirements in line with current government policy.”

She said that the HSE’s Winter Plan includes additional workers for the HSE across all professions.

“To date, this year we have recruited almost 4,700 extra staff – this includes a net increase of 141 consultants; a net increase of 759 registrars, senior house officers and interns; 1,100 nurses and midwives; 400 health and social healthcare professionals; 500 patient and client care roles; and over 500 general supports for our services,” she added.