HSE must publish all consultant vacancies – Burke

Fine Gael Cork North Central Senator and the Party’s Seanad Spokesperson on Health, Colm Burke, has today (Sunday) called on the HSE to disclose a full list of all current hospital consultant vacancies.

“The HSE must make all hospital consultant vacancies publicly known. I am astonished that when this request was submitted to the HSE over six weeks ago, the written reply I received was to the effect that this information was not available.

“A list was produced to me at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children on the 23rd of October, but that list is not a true reflection of the number of vacancies currently in Irish hospitals. We are now reaching crisis point regarding staffing in some hospitals and HSE management must clarify the position.

“In particular, University Hospital Waterford has 24 vacancies out of a total number of 96 consultant posts. 

This means that one in four consultant positions are now vacant in the hospital.  There is an urgent need to identify the reason why this has occurred and to outline what action is being taken.

“If we do not have consultants in place, the patient waiting lists are going to grow. In addition, junior doctors will not get the training that they require under consultant supervision.

“We already have major problems in respect of junior doctors and it would now appear that we are approaching the same dilemma with medical consultants.

“Patient waiting lists are going to grow unless we have the medical consultants with the expertise available. 

Filling positions with locum consultants will not resolve the problems we currently face. As a starting point, the HSE must immediately publish all consultant vacancies.”