Since the beginning of the year health care managers have been flagging for the Department of Health and Children and health boards the difficulties being experienced in recruiting anaesthetists and the shortage of manpower. Despite the complaints made very little has been done through the health boards to ensure the crisis will not bite deep into the services provided by them.
The Irish Accident and Emergency Association wrote to the Medical Council in February to highlight the problems being experienced. The main problem seems to be that the Medical Council has introduced its own examination and will no longer recognise the PLAB examination in the United Kingdom which is of the same standard and which EU and Asian doctors are able to sit in their own countries, thereby reducing the cost involved. As a result there is a manpower shortage. Prior to this EU and Asian doctors travelled here via the United Kingdom. In view of the crisis that will confront health boards, will the Department and Medical Council recognise once more the equivalent UK qualification and consider reducing the cost involved in sitting the Irish examination to ensure the required qualified personnel are recruited? Will the Departments concerned look at the length of time a doctor can stay within the jurisdiction and extend it from five to seven years? This would be of great assistance.
I understand that health boards have been notified by consultants in Mullingar, Portlaoise and my city of Kilkenny that there will be a drop of two in the number of staff at Wexford General Hospital, one in Cashel-Clonmel, two in Cork University Hospital, one in the Mercy Hospital, two in Limerick Regional Hospital, six in Tralee and three in Kilkenny. The drop of three in the number of staff in Kilkenny will result in a reduction of one-third in the number of elective general surgical procedures, in other words, the waiting lists will grow by one-third. One of the hospital's two theatres will close and there will be no epidural service after 6 p.m. Emergencies and the transfer of patients in the emergency system will be greatly affected. The casualty department in St. Luke's Hospital will close for one and a half months over a period of six months.
These reductions will begin to bite into the health service at the end of June. If something is not done in the meantime the service will be rapidly confronted by a crisis, particularly in the South Eastern Health Board. Given that the problems being experienced have been flagged since the beginning of the year, will the Department review the situation and ensure that each health board will have the capacity to respond to the crisis? An audit might give a clearer indication as to the shortfall in the number of qualified personnel.
I ask the Minister of State to note the three requests I have made – that the cost of the Medical Council examination be reduced, that the PLAB examination in the United Kingdom be recognised once more and that the length of time qualified personnel can stay within the jurisdiction be extended from five to seven years. I understand that St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny will be the flashpoint. There is therefore no time to waste. We should be proactive and ask for a plan of action to allay the fears of the public.
