Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

All of my interventions have been short. I am thinking again about what I learned over the years. One of those things was the argument about Ireland having too many hospital beds. We heard that argument being made until about five years ago. Every time we had a meeting anywhere, it stated that there were too many hospital beds. That was the lead-in to the notion that nobody wanted to be a consultant in a small hospital down the country. The idea was that they all wanted to be in a big urban centre in a hospital with all types of specialties. I can understand that because job satisfaction is important. How much of medicine now consists of a vocation? That used to be high on the agenda. There was a view that a particular type of person was suited to the role and would be committed to it.

We also had the district hospital doctor, who was perhaps the second or third generation working in the same hospital and taking personal pride in his own patch. I believe that has shifted now and it is more of a job. The same thing happened in the local authorities, an area we know well, where the county manager was a permanent fixture. The manager took full responsibility and pride in delivering to what he or she saw as his or her patch. That is gone now because it is now a contract. The same pride is not carried with it because it is a job. It is a route towards promotion somewhere else. I am not suggesting that I know more about this than the IMO representatives, but I am deeply concerned about it. In medicine in particular there is a need to have that unique vocational commitment.