Dr. Tom Ryan:

In the public health care system, we see approximately 3.2 million people in outpatient departments per year. We do 1.25 million surgical procedures. The work is either performed or supervised by consultants, which amount to 2.5% of the work force. Data indicate that in the past ten years, our productivity has increased by 25% despite resources being restricted. There is no problem with consultant performance but there is a problem with capacity. Our efforts should be directed towards increasing the capacity of the system and attracting more people to work in it.

One can monitor consultants and we will find that they work way in excess of their hours. It will not help, as we know. We know that the problem is there are not enough consultants. Whatever we do, we should ensure it is designed to attract more consultants into the system. In that respect, monitoring consultants and getting them to clock in and out would just be a mask of the underlying problems. It would not deal with such underlying problems. We need bigger hospitals, more consultants, more beds and more operating theatres. It is a very good distraction but this does not deal with the core issue. It will not help patients in the end.