Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The matter I wish to raise is a new agreement I discovered by accident which has been reached between the HSE and the universities in Pakistan. There is a need to bring the information into the public domain as we got no indication that this was happening. I raise the issue given that more than 200 people were brought in here in 2011 from India and Pakistan under the supervised division created for medical practice. We gave them two-year contracts either from July 2011 to June 2013 or from December-January 2011-12 up to 2014. Those two-year contracts will begin to expire at the end of June 2013. As I understand it, they will not be offered new posts.

I gave the example at the Joint Committee on Health and Children that of the six registrars in anaesthetics, five are employed by the HSE and the sixth is employed by an agency and has refused to take a post as a locum, in the knowledge that nobody else is prepared to accept the post as a locum. Therefore, the HSE is paying substantial money to employ through an agency. There are two senior house officers, SHOs, under the supervised division. I understand that when their two-year contract expires they cannot apply for the post of registrar, even though the people in the hospital have informed me they are suitably qualified. I am concerned at the lack of joined-up thinking in the HSE and the Department on the issue given that up to 250 people who have had the experience of working here for two years will be sent home.

I am concerned at the lack of consultation with the medical colleges and the HSE, in particular the Royal College of Surgeons and University of Limerick. The University of Limerick has many people from Canada who spend four years here doing their medical degree. They get the experience of working in Irish hospitals during the course of those four years and we are not prepared to offer them intern posts. Likewise, I understand the Royal College of Surgeons is not offering intern posts, although the students have been in the education process in Ireland for five years and have the experience of being students in Irish hospitals and are familiar with the way the system works. The HSE and the Department are not talking to those two institutions yet they are prepared to travel to Pakistan and employ people on two-year contracts. I seek clarification on the issue.

I put down a specific question to the HSE six months ago seeking the number of junior doctors who are on six-month contracts, the number on 12-month contracts, the number on two-year contracts and the number on three-year contracts and I cannot get that information. We need to look at this whole area which will be a disaster from June onwards unless the issue is tackled in a planned way. I am not convinced by the answers I got at the Joint Committee on Heath and Children on Tuesday, 5 March 2013. I am concerned from the Department and the HSE points of view that we are not dealing with the issue in a proper manner.