Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Dr. McGarry for his statement and all the witnesses for their time. It is difficult to know where to start with his statement. It is pretty damning stuff. It depicts a healthcare system and a workforce in crisis. How many doctors are we short? Dr. McGarry might start with the hospitals before moving onto GPs. There are meant to be approximately 3,300 hospital consultants, but we are approximately 500 short in terms of full-time posts. Even if an additional 500 consultants were recruited tomorrow, Ireland would still have the lowest number of hospital consultants anywhere in Europe. It can be estimated that to get to the European average, the additional 500 consultants we are currently missing would need to be hired as well as another 2,500 thereafter. If the Government is ambitious about our healthcare system, it must admit that the shortfall is approximately 3,000 consultants rather than 500. Given that we have approximately 3,000 hospital consultants, the Government needs to double the current number to get to the European average. We should probably be a bit more ambitious for our country and for our people than to be at the European average.

Dr. McGarry has given us worrying figures relating to to public health specialists.

Up to half of them are due to retire in the next five years. We have about half the number of orthopaedic surgeons, paediatricians and psychiatrists we need and 30% of the number of ophthalmologists. There is a crisis with the shortage of hospital consultants in particular hospitals and specialties. For particular towns, villages and cities, it is even worse.

Do the witnesses know if there is a plan anywhere in the HSE or the Department that states this is the number of consultants required per hospital, per specialty or per hospital group, or even just for the country, over the next five to ten years? Is there a workforce plan which states the number of consultants needed to be hired, including all those we know who will retire, which will get us to an agreed figure, say the European average? Does that exist?