Irish EM trainee doctors threaten emigration or speciality change

Almost all trainee emergency medicine doctors in Irish hospitals say they will either emigrate or change specialities after new consultant pay cuts were announced.

The survey results have shocked the medical community in Ireland, with 97 per cent of those surveyed saying they will seek employment overseas either at the end of their training or early in the next year of their training. A significant number also indicated they might change specialities before their training ended.

Those polled said that contractual terms and working conditions for consultants in the field already compared poorly to consultants in other specialities, and would need to change for the better. Additionally, none were prepared to take on a consultant’s position in emergency medicine now that salary cuts of 30 per cent have been announced.

The survey, carried out by the Irish Emergency Medicine Trainees Association, backed up recent difficulties in filling consultants’ posts in the sector. Even before the new cut in salary was announced, only seven out of the past year’s 14 emergency medicine consultancy posts have been filled.

Dr John McInerney from the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IEMA) said that, should most trainees at present in the sector emigrate or transfer to another speciality, it would be impossible to put in place the necessary changes planned for hospital emergency departments. The proposed schedule for extended working rosters for consultants would also have to be abandoned.

The working roster proposals are at risk, even without a possible shortage of consultants, as two contractual issues concerning rest days and payments to psychiatrists are still under fierce debate. The threatened pay cut will take place if the Irish Hospital Consultants Association is considered to be in breach of the original deal.