The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has told the Public Service Pay Commission that poor pay was a key factor in the health service struggling to recruit adequate numbers of doctors.  The IMO told the Commission the number of practising doctors per 1,000 of population (2.8) was well below the EU average of 3.4 practising doctors per 1,000 of population.

The IMO made the comments at a presentation today to the Public Service Pay Commission.  Dr. John Duddy, President of the IMO, highlighted five key points on the manpower crisis:

• 70% of NCHDs in Ireland cited poor pay as a key motivation to consider        working abroad
• 9% of doctors aged between 25 and 34 left the Irish medical register in         2015
• 250 consultant posts remain unfilled across Ireland
• Ireland has a very low percentage of practising doctors compared to   European average (2.8 in Ireland v 3.4 in Europe per 1,000 of           population).
• Ireland has second highest reliance on foreign-trained medical practitioners in OECD.

Dr. Duddy said while pay was not the only problem in the Irish health services, it was significant; “our pay rates for NCHDs, consultants and public health doctors are not competitive with other English-speaking jurisdictions and this is a strong “push-factor” for doctors to leave Ireland”.

View Online Here