Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I also accept that in the interests of both the safety of patients and doctors that the hours must be reduced in accordance with the working time directive. However, until such time as those consultants are appointed, the same junior hospital doctors are still going to have to work the same hours as before or else patients will be left unattended. I had a long conversation with a young doctor who is training to be a GP. He told me the doctors cannot leave the patients; there will not be extra non-consultant hospital doctors but the consultants have not yet been appointed. There is a real problem in the meantime which the Minister needs to address. It is unfair on those doctors to be expected to do the hours but their pay is going to be cut by more than half in many cases although I am not defending the long hours. With regard to the cuts in study and training time I remind the Minister that non-consultant hospital doctors must train and study and surely they should be recompensed for that.

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