Call for consultants to agree to seven-day working roster

HOSPITAL CONSULTANTS will have to agree to seven-day working under changes to be made as part of the Croke Park agreement, HSE chief executive Cathal Magee has warned.

To underpin the fundamental changes planned for the health service, a much greater “decision-making presence” was needed in hospitals across the seven days of the week, he told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee.

Greater cover was needed on Saturdays and Sundays to ensure the flow of patients through hospitals was the same as during the rest of the week. “Hospitals work 24/7. We can’t confine decision-making to Monday to Friday.”

Prof Gary Courtney, national acute medicine lead in the HSE, said it unbalanced hospital systems to have lots of patient discharges on a Friday and admissions on a Monday.

While hospitals had been dealing with the “front door” in terms of addressing patient waiting times, they also needed to look at the “back door”, or how patients were discharged.

The number of consultant posts in the health service has increased by one-quarter since 2005, and the working week for many consultants has been extended.

Committee chairman John McGuinness called on the HSE to deal with the lack of engagement of local stakeholders in its plans for change. “The HSE needs to work more closely with elected representatives and community groups to communicate clearly what changes are being planned, why they are being introduced and what effect they will have on people using hospital services,” he said.