Conference theme is Valuing Doctors 

Incoming President, Dr. Peadar Gilligan says the Doctors of Ireland want to provide the best of care to their patients and the system must facilitate them in so doing. Valuing Doctors means providing them with the resources they need to care for patients. A government that has an antagonistic relationship with its medical professionals is not going to be an employer of choice. 

Thursday 5th April 2018.  Doctors in the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) will begin their Annual General Meeting today in Killarney, Co. Kerry.  The event kicks off at 2pm and will run through the weekend.  The theme of this year’s AGM is Valuing Doctors and incoming President, Dr. Peadar Gilligan, has warned that doctors across the various medical disciplines are facing grave challenges.

Speaking today, Dr. Gilligan said that doctors in Ireland were under significant pressure and that the medical manpower crisis was now reflected in 

• Record levels of emigration amongst recently qualified and working doctors,
• Record numbers of resignations from Consultant posts 
• A failure to attract applicants to key positions as Consultants and General Practitioners 

Dr. Gilligan said; Ireland has very significant expectations of it’s Doctors in terms of knowledge, skills, expertise, compassion and caring. Doctors reasonably expect that their contracts will reflect this level of expectation. Since the founding of the trade union movement a guiding principle has been that people holding the same qualification, with the same expertise, having the same level of responsibility, doing the same job will be paid the same pay. New entrant Doctors cannot continue to be treated unfairly.

Until the 30% pay cut to Consultants is fully addressed we will have challenges recruiting the almost 500 unfilled Consultant posts. Until the FEMPI cuts, which have hit at the heart of the viability of General Practice, are addressed we will have insufficient GPs to take up GMS lists. Until NCHD contracts are honoured in their entirety we will have unfilled NCHD posts. Until specialists in Public Health are treated the same as other specialists we will have challenges in recruiting to this important specialty.

Capacity constraints in the Irish health system are the reason for waiting lists and crowded Emergency Departments and until there is real progress in this regard Ireland will find it challenging to recruit and retain Doctors. 

The Sláintecare Report recognized that the Irish health system needs to become an employer of choice in the international market that is medical recruitment. We have a long way to go to achieve this but the road is clear and the IMO is ready to play it’s part.

The Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, will attend the AGM on Saturday evening and will make a keynote address.

The AGM will feature discussions on a range of topics including Sláintecare, the economics of new medicines and treatments, fake news and vaccines and the growing use of anti-depressants.

Dr. Gilligan succeeds Dr. Ann Hogan as President and will formally take up the role later today (Thursday).  He is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.