Three non-consultant hospital doctors are seeking election to a health authority for the first time in the history of the State.
The so-called junior doctors are campaigning for seats on the new Eastern Regional Health Authority and say they will fight for shorter working hours and better conditions for their colleagues. The authority, which replaces the Eastern Health Board from March 1st next, will have 55 members, and the NCHDs believe that as the largest group of healthcare providers in the region, they deserve representation. "We feel we should have a significant input into the planning, development, monitoring and evaluation of the healthcare services in the area," said one of the candidates, Dr David Honan (37) from Monkstown, Dublin.
A senior registrar in anaesthesia at St Vincent's Hospital, he is critical of the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, for refusing to reserve any seats on the authority for NCHDs while places are designated for other categories such as consultants and GPs.
Elections are now taking place for the selection of medical representatives to the ERHA and voting closes on November 8th. There are 13 seats on the board for professionals including one dentist, a general nurse, a psychiatric nurse and a pharmacist. The other nine seats, for which there are 16 contenders, must be occupied by two consultants from general hospitals, one consultant psychiatrist, two GPs and a doctor working in the area of public health, leaving three seats accessible to the NCHDs.
While there are over 1,000 junior doctors in the region, which covers counties Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare, about 700 of them are eligible to vote and 500 have registered to vote.
Dr Honan is confident that NCHDs will vote en masse to return all three junior doctors to give them an important voice on the authority.
"We would urge NCHD voters to vote only for the three NCHD candidates in order to maximise the total NCHD vote," he said.
"NCHDs are no longer just junior doctors. Many are in their mid to late 30s and can call on a significant wealth of experience and should have a voice on the authority," Dr Honan said.
He claimed the election had already been tainted by tactics which did not help the NCHDs' fight for seats. "Several outgoing EHB members seeking election to the new body have apparently gained early access to the list of voters' names and addresses before this was officially released and they began to canvass voters early. Indeed one individual has used the EHB headed notepaper, giving an aura of officialdom to his canvassing letter." Dr Honan is also critical of the fact that 30 places on the new board have been set aside for public representatives nominated by local authorities. His two IMO colleagues on the ballot paper will be Dr Ronan Collins (30) from Kinsale, Co Cork, a registrar in age-related healthcare at Tallaght Hospital, and Dr Mick Molloy (29) from Gorey, Co Wexford, a registrar at the accident and emergency department of St Vincent's Hospital.
Their chief concern is the "crazy" hours NCHDs have to work. "Some have to work 168 hours per week," Dr Molloy said. "I think NCHDs can contribute a great deal to the ERHA because they are aware, more than any other group, of the practical problems that exist within the hospital sector." It was the first time NCHDs had run for a statutory body in the State, and he hoped it would form a precedent.