Sir, – As an Irish-trained non-consultant hospital doctor (NCHD), I read with some disappointment Dr Chris Luke's suggestions for dealing with the current challenges in retaining medical staff (December 28th).
As a medical graduate from University College Cork’s class of 2014, I was joined by 21 of my classmates in emigrating to Perth at the end of my intern year in 2015. We were the first generation of doctors to graduate who had to sit the Health Professions Admission Test (Hpat) examination in order to gain entry to study medicine.
My generation and previous generations of doctors have emigrated in droves due to poor working conditions in the HSE, including but not limited to a combination of low pay, inflexible training schemes, poor after-hours support for junior doctors, inadequate staffing levels (across various disciplines), significant lack of cover for sick leave and annual leave, and limited protected teaching time.
I agree with Dr Luke that our return and retention to Irish hospitals needs to be incentivised, but I would suggest that making doctors want to work in the country by improving conditions, instead of attempting to force them to, would be the best approach for both patient safety and talent retention. – Is mise,
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Dr FIONN Ó LAOIRE,
Scarborough,
Western Australia.
Sir, – I feel compelled to respond to the recent addition to your Working Abroad series, in which a non-consultant hospital doctor (NCHD) compares experiences working in Ireland versus Australia ("Almost everything about life in Sydney feels better", December 28th).
Having worked as an NCHD for six years, one of those being in Perth, I am all too familiar with the disparity between the two systems.
However, Dr Laura Brown’s Irish experiences are six years old. In the intervening years, there have been many changes.
While 36-hour shifts occasionally still occur, they are by no means the norm. Most of our NCHD colleagues are now on shift work, and very grateful for it.
While Irish NCHDs are still expected to perform tasks normally performed by other staff grades elsewhere, there is an ongoing “transfer of tasks” project that now sees us beginning to share these jobs with our nursing colleagues. While progress has been slow on this front, progress is still being made.
In addition, Dr Brown fails to mention that many Australian NCHDs in more specialised fields or more rural areas continue to work excessive and unsafe hours.
Yes, there are still problems and, yes, the NCHD experience in Ireland still lags behind other developed countries, but things are improving, albeit slowly.
If we see continued engagement from the HSE and a willingness on their part to heed our feedback, perhaps NCHDs won’t feel the need to leave these shores.
Except perhaps for better weather. – Yours, etc,
Dr DOUGLAS
MULHOLLAND,
Specialist Registrar
in Radiology,
St. James’s Hospital,
Dublin 8.