Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I support Senator Browne's comments regarding the amount of notice medical personnel should provide. When I chaired the ethics committee of the Medical Council, I received many complaints in respect of trainee doctors. The latter change jobs on 1 January and 1 July. The nature of the complaints would have been, for example, that a trainee doctor had accepted a job in Donegal but had later received an offer of one in Dublin, which would be a better location in which to work. He or she would have given no notice of his or her intention to accept the job in Dublin and would not contact the hospital in Donegal to indicate that he or she would not be turning up. The authorities at the latter would be under the impression that the young doctor in question was coming to the facility to spend six months working there but he or she would never appear.

The Medical Council could do nothing about the type of behaviour to which I refer. Perhaps trainee doctors should be informed that such behaviour is not professionally or ethically correct and that they have a responsibility to prospective employers and patients. The latter would, after all, be expecting that someone would be present to care for them while in hospital. It might be of assistance if junior hospital doctors were made aware of what is expected of them in this regard.