Consultants "easy to blame" when it comes to hospital rostering, says UHW consultant

Following comments from Health Minister Jennifer Carrol MacNeill regarding staffing at weekends in Irish Hospitals, an overhaul to consultants’ working patterns will soon be implemented.

The Health Minister promised to have more hospital consultants working on-site on weekends, saying she “wasn’t pleased” with a recent roster she saw.

According to Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, she met with Bernard Gloucester, the head of HSE, in recent weeks to establish a plan to schedule additional experts and top decision-makers for the weekends.

Waterford Consultant Rob Landers welcomes the decision, however, he says consultants are “easy to blame” when it comes to Government decisions on our health service.

Mr. Landers spoke earlier on Déise Today saying consultants will still be working a 37-hour week, meaning they will not be available as much mid-week.

“Consultants aren’t working any longer. It’s still a 37-hour-a-week contract. The difference between the new and the old is simply the consultants can be rostered to work on a Saturday and late into the evening, which is fine.

“We accept that health should be a seven-day service or certainly our acute hospitals. What the minister seems to forget is that it’s still only 37 hours. If you put a consultant on the floor all day on a Saturday, they’re going to be missing some days during the week. You’re not getting any more productivity out of the system, but simply increasing the hours over which they could be rostered.”

Strikes

Unions representing 80,000 healthcare workers remain in WRC talks with the HSE, as planned industrial action has escalated. Healthcare workers are due to begin work to rule from Monday in a row over staffing levels.

However, next Thursday staff at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda will conduct a 1-day strike, as notice was served by the INMO and Forsa this morning (Thursday).

INMO General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha claims management there hasn’t put an appropriate contingency plan in place.

“Consultants are convenient to blame when it comes to Ministers and Senior Management in the HSE”, continued Mr. Landers, “Everyone we’re paying them a fortune and they’re not coming in. Nothing could be further from the truth in reality.

“Consultants are in at weekends. If you walk around the hospital [UHW] here on a Saturday or Sunday morning, you see many consultants doing ward rounds.”

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said there has been an increase in the number of people working in the healthcare system and that it should be managed in a way that “responds to patients’ needs”.

According to her, about 25% of patients who visit emergency rooms are admitted, with the remaining patients receiving treatment in a variety of ways.

She claimed that although the number of trolleys increased from 2023 to 2024, there has been “quite a lot of drift” since the start of this year.

24/7 cardiac care

Three patients were treated at UHW’s Cardiac Suite last weekend.

It follows the implementation of eight to eight care seven days a week, including Bank Holidays and Weekends.

Cardiac Campaigner and former Waterford TD Matt Shanahan said it is welcome news, but more needs to be done to get full cardiac cover.

“I think we must certainly welcome the fact that three patients have been treated in the UHW Cath Lab over the weekend. Those are three patients that otherwise would have had to endure ambulance travel to Cork or Dublin and I’m sure it’s a great relief to both them and their families that they have received appropriate and timely care.

“Regarding the drive to 24-7, I would be advocating that that process should begin almost immediately and I fully expectthat the University Hospital Waterford Cath Lab suite within a matter of months will be one of the busiest in the country, even though it is only working half of the week.

When asked by WLR earlier this month about a potential timeline for full 24/7 cardiac care at UHW, General Manager Ben O’Sullivan said it is a complex process that the hospital needs to implement.

“Practically we’d have to get approvals in terms of the funding associated with developing that service. In terms of the costs associated with going eight-to-eight on Saturdays and Sundays, there are also considerable costs associated with going 24-7.

“We would probably need somewhere north of thirty staff to be able to provide that. The key with recruitment in healthcare professional roles is you want the best available, and when you create a new service or uplift a service like going 24-7, you’re going to be looking for a lot of staff at the same time.

“You have people graduating that will be qualifying and you’ll be looking to recruit them. You’re looking for people that are willing to move from other centers around the country or further fields, but in reality, it’s going to take a long period to hire some of these specialised roles.

“It’ll be very gradual in terms of how you would you would get those roles in place. If I were looking for the number of consultants that you would need to be able to provide 24-7 service, it’s going to take us months into the year, and probably a 12-18 month time frame to be able to recruit the volume of consultants that you need to recruit.