Reilly says junior doctors need to feel more valued

Proposals to provide greater structure in medical careers and make doctors feel more valued in the health service are contained in a new report commissioned by the Department of Health.

Minister for Health James Reilly said the report would address the lack of respect and value that junior doctors feel they get from the health system, as well as providing more certainty about their future career progression.

He said that medical training had developed haphazardly over the year and the report by the Strategic Review Working Group was a real attempt to put structure on this system.

Today's report is the third and final report produced by the working group chaired by Professor Brian MacCraith, president of Dublin City University. It was asked by the Minister to look at training and career structures for doctors to a background of skills shortages in many areas and increasing medical emigration.

The report says a national workforce planning structure should be established in the Department of Health to plan medical manpower needs in the future.

The current “multi-step” system for appointing consultants should be re-designed and modernised as a matter of priority, it says. “A systems and service-wide approach to posts - both new and replacement - should be incorporated, that better balances local autonomy and national coordination - in line with the hospital group structures.”

"Junior doctors don't feel valued in the health system, and we cannot allow this to continue," said Leo Kearns, national lead for transformation and change with the Health Service Executive. "it is unacceptable that we can't retain large number of doctors."

Career structures and pathways for 900 doctors in service posts in the acute hospital sector and 260 public and community health doctors are limited, the report notes. It says the HSE should put in place processes that address this issue, in line with the needs of the health service, patient safety and registration and training requirements for doctors.

The report also calls for the setting up of a working group to look at the current and future role of public health specialists and suggest measures should be introduced to enhance the awareness among medical students of public health as a career option.

In relation to GPs, it says contracts should be introduced to allow for flexible working, as well as measures to encourage newly qualified GPs to remain in Ireland at the end of training.