James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I accept everything the Deputy said. I did not reach the end of my reply owing to time restrictions. I will not bother with the script and instead tell the Deputy what is the position. I am pleased that as a result of the terrible dark cloud of the shortage of non-consultant hospital doctors, the Medical Council and colleges have come forward and co-operated in an effort to have the issue resolved. Arising out of this, I have spoken to their representatives about creating a forum. I want to report by the autumn on how we will address manpower issues from the day a person starts as a medical student to the day he or she retires as a specialist or general practitioner. We need to create clear career paths and treat people with dignity. We should create a specialist position. At present, one in four of those who complete their specialist registrar training become consultants because jobs are available for them, while three out of four become deskilled and start to go backwards or leave the country because jobs are not available for them.

People have referred to indenture. It costs nearly €1 million to get someone to specialist registrar level at the end of training. For this reason, I want to create a new post of specialist who will be clinically autonomous, will only report to the clinical director and will ultimately become a full consultant. We should acknowledge that he or she has the clinical acumen, training and experience to work as an autonomous clinician. This will provide a clear career path and address much of the shortage being experienced in our hospitals.

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