Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be very brief. What changes do the witnesses want to see with regard to specialist registrars and their training, as well as junior doctors? I would appreciate a written reply on the changes they would make in order to assist people who are in that category. There also seems to be a lack of understanding around consultant contracts. A lot of people do not understand that a lot of consultants under contract are on a one-in-three or one-in-four rota. That means that they work all day, every day, five days a week and are on call every third or fourth night as well as being on call every third or every fourth weekend. There are even consultants on one-in-two rotas. There is a lack of understanding among the public about that.

The other issue that we need to understand is that under the current category B and category C contracts consultants, who number about 2,000, have about 2 million appointments per year outside of their work for the HSE or within the public system. If there are 3.5 million outpatient appointments annually, this means that if we bring everything into the public sector, we will have to see a huge expansion very quickly.

Another issue I want to raise is the challenges facing GP trainees. As I understand it, there are currently around 5,000 GP vacancies in the UK. The IMO referred to the fact that the training of doctors needs to be modernised. Could we get a written submission on what modernisation is being referred to here? I ask them to include a response on the number of additional GP training places we need. I was speaking to a GP last night who told me that one in eight GPs is over 65.