Dr. Niamh Humphries:

We need to improve the working conditions.

We will not retain the doctors we have or attract people back unless we start to improve the working conditions for hospital doctors. The fact there are 837 vacant posts is horrific. What happens where there is no consultant? What happens to the junior doctors who are meant to be supervised by the consultant? What happens to the patients who are meant to be seen by the consultant? There is a real need to make these posts more attractive to the individual doctors, either abroad or here, who are eligible to apply for them. We need to improve the working conditions considerably so they are attractive posts for people to apply for.