Local consultant ‘doing the job of two for five years’

 A consultant at Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore has been doing the work of two people for the last five years, it has emerged, as waiting lists for an outpatient appointment in that area is now over two and half years.

Speaking at recent meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, the Secretary General of the Irish Hospital Consultants Assocation, Martin Varley, revealed that the kidney specialist in the hospital has been trying to carry out the workload of two consultants since 2014.

 "Normally, that hospital has two nephrologists, but the second person took a post in another hospital. One nephrologist has been carrying the work of two for the past five years in Tullamore. The post has been advertised three times but there are no eligible candidates. The waiting list for an outpatient appointment is two and a half years, whereas the ideal is for patients to be seen within three to four months in order that urgent cases can be diagnosed," he told members of the committee during a recent discussion on workforce planning in the health service.

 "The staff are completely overstretched. One kidney specialist has been doing the job of two for the last five years and trying to manage a big caseload, while there is a waiting list of two and half years.

 "As well as staff being overstretched, it is putting patients at risk. Overcrowding is a topical issue, but there are so many other problems at the hospital. There are massive staffing problems. They haven't been dealt with and have been brushed under the carpet or glossed over for a number of years," she claimed.

"The frontline staff and consultants are doing a fantastic job, but it's totally unfair on them and patient safety is being compromised."

Deputy Nolan added that there are staffing shortages across the health and social care services across the county, including in the areas of home health and mental health services where 44% of the consultants working in Offally and neighbouring counties were non-specialists.

 Although Ireland has one of highest per capita spends on health in the world, the services in rural counties like Offaly "are as bad as ever," she said.

There needs to be an overhaul of how the health budget is deployed, the Independent TD said this week.

 "The system is management heavy. We have lots of senior managers but front-line workers are stretched to the limit. We need some sort of reconfiguration that prioritise's patient safety and front-line staffing," she concluded.

 The HSE has yet to respond to a query from the Offaly Independent on situation at the time of going to press (Thursday).