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Ireland among top countries globally for reliance on foreign doctors
Tudorina Mihai
10 August 2017
Ireland’s increasing need for doctors is mainly being met by employing foreign-trained doctors, according to a new report from the RCSI Health Workforce Research Group. Despite achieving self-sufficiency, through graduating approximately 700 Irish doctors annually from the six medical schools in Ireland, the percentage of Irish doctors on the Medical Council register continues to fall. While the number of new entrants to the register doubled between 2012 and 2015, the numbers of graduates from outside Ireland who joined the register accounted for two thirds of all new registrants in 2015.
Africa contributes the highest number of doctors with 28% and Pakistan supplies more than 20% of Ireland’s foreign-trained doctors. An important new pattern is the growth in the numbers of doctors trained in other European Union (EU) countries, which now represent 20% of foreign trained doctors. Graduates of medical schools in Romania, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic included not only nationals from these countries, but many non-EU nationals and a significant number of Irish nationals.
This new analysis, which summarises Medical Council registration trends, alongside data from the HSE’s National Doctor Training and Planning unit, also profiles the nationalities and countries of training of non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) working in Irish hospitals. While the numbers of NCHDs increased between 2011 and 2015, most of these were recruited to non-training posts. This means that efforts to put in place a specialist-delivered-health service are being undermined.
The report states that the systemic drivers of this growing medical workforce crisis include: i) high rates of emigration among graduates of Irish medical schools, attracted by better working conditions, training and career opportunities in other English speaking countries; ii) the need to be compliant with the European Working Time Directive, which restricts hospital doctors’ working week; and iii) increasing demand.
The report states that Ireland needs effective retention measures to achieve medical workforce sustainability and to comply with our global responsibilities not to recruit doctors from poorer countries that can ill afford to lose their doctors. This means providing better working conditions (shorter and more flexible working hours); better terms and conditions (including equitable salary levels for new consultants); and more attractive training and clearer career paths for the doctors we produce.
The full report: Brain Drain to Brain Gain: Ireland's Two-Way Flow of Doctors
Source:Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Africa contributes the highest number of doctors with 28% and Pakistan supplies more than 20% of Ireland’s foreign-trained doctors. An important new pattern is the growth in the numbers of doctors trained in other European Union (EU) countries, which now represent 20% of foreign trained doctors. Graduates of medical schools in Romania, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic included not only nationals from these countries, but many non-EU nationals and a significant number of Irish nationals.
This new analysis, which summarises Medical Council registration trends, alongside data from the HSE’s National Doctor Training and Planning unit, also profiles the nationalities and countries of training of non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) working in Irish hospitals. While the numbers of NCHDs increased between 2011 and 2015, most of these were recruited to non-training posts. This means that efforts to put in place a specialist-delivered-health service are being undermined.
The report states that the systemic drivers of this growing medical workforce crisis include: i) high rates of emigration among graduates of Irish medical schools, attracted by better working conditions, training and career opportunities in other English speaking countries; ii) the need to be compliant with the European Working Time Directive, which restricts hospital doctors’ working week; and iii) increasing demand.
The report states that Ireland needs effective retention measures to achieve medical workforce sustainability and to comply with our global responsibilities not to recruit doctors from poorer countries that can ill afford to lose their doctors. This means providing better working conditions (shorter and more flexible working hours); better terms and conditions (including equitable salary levels for new consultants); and more attractive training and clearer career paths for the doctors we produce.
The full report: Brain Drain to Brain Gain: Ireland's Two-Way Flow of Doctors
Source:Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
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