UNDER-RESOURCED UNDER-APPRECIATED
GOING (DOWN) UNDER? Why do so many doctors in Ireland want to leave the health system and why do those who stay feel demoralised? These are questions explored by the College, which has called on the HSE for change
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hanks to an increase in the number of places in Irish medical schools, the country is now training enough doctors each year to meet the needs of the Irish health system into the future, but it sometimes seems as if the system is giving with one hand and taking away with the other. Our young doctors are emigrating in their droves, driven away by a dysfunctional system that has them feeling under-resourced, under-trained and under-appreciated. And the indications are that this is not necessarily the circular kind of emigration that will see them returning in a few years with enhanced skillsets and expertise that will benefit their profession, the health system and the country as a whole. Many of those who are leaving may be gone for good, and there may be only a narrow window of opportunity in which to address the issues that have triggered and fueled the exodus and entice them back. Once they settle and start families abroad, they are much less likely ever to return.
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Recent research carried out by an RCSI team led by Professor Ruairi Brugha reveals that more than 80 per cent of trainee doctors in Ireland who are considering leaving the country – or have already left – cite poor working conditions, training opportunities and work-life balance as factors that influence their decision-making. “Unless sufficient resources are invested in providing specialist training to doctors after they have graduated medical school,” says Professor Brugha, “employing them in adequately staffed hospitals with comparable training and working conditions to those on offer in other countries, we will continue to lose those who are the lifeblood of our health system.” It’s ironic that, at a time when only the best and the brightest make it across the threshold of medical school in Ireland, once they graduate their employers often seem not to care whether they stay or go. Compare this to the situation in tech and other industries competing for skilled workers, where employees are cherished and rewarded in a manner of which a young doctor in Ireland can only dream.
