Dr. Rachel McNamara:

The Senator made a very important point. A big change in the past decade or so is the feminisation of medicine such that 55% of current medical students are female. We are on the cusp of our whole doctor population reaching more than 50% female. The current figure is 47%. That was never the case previously. A lot of the stress and anxiety issues, along with arising from what we have already discussed, namely, overcrowding and consistently being unable to deliver the best possible care, come from practical issues such as there still being a huge onus on doctors to migrate around the country regularly to undertake training. There is no way to avoid that at the moment. I have friends and colleagues who have had to spend a year or more living away from their very young children. Some of them choose to commute but that takes away from the small amount of time they are allowed to sleep. Getting sleep is very important to being able to mount any sort of resistance to the demands of the work and the onset of stress and burnout.

Childcare is another issue. At the moment, there is no option for a surgical trainee who is starting at 7 a.m. to avail of childcare. It does not exist. Addressing that is a very straightforward, practical solution that we have looked for time and again. However, proposals in that regard did not feature in the NCHD task force report. We welcome the report hugely but this was a major omission. Planning for the types of childcare provision that are required could really make a huge difference to a large cohort of our doctor population.

Living away from family, the burdens of the work, having to migrate, having to double-rent when moving around for the course of training are all issues facing doctors. I reiterate the point that people can put up with a lot if they are being treated fairly, working safe, contractual and legal hours and getting paid appropriately. Those very basic things are not guaranteed within the system at the moment. People can put up with an awful lot if those basics are in place. At the moment, the trust is absolutely obliterated. There is a huge amount in the task force report. It has been endorsed by the Government but we need to see implementation of the aspects I mentioned.