The IMO has called for the immediate publication of a “comprehensive risk assessment” which has been undertaken on the Urgent Care Centre due to open in Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown next week.
The Urgent Care Centre is being opened as part of the broader rollout of the new National Children’s Hospital.
“The IMO fully supports the development of enhanced services for children; however, we have very serious concerns regarding the scheduled opening of the Urgent Care Centre in Connolly Hospital on 31 July,” said former IMO President and current member of the union’s consultant committee Dr Peadar Gilligan.
“We are now just days away from the scheduled opening, yet we have still to see a detailed and up-to-date risk assessment to confirm that the center is fit to operate – even on the restricted basis that the Children’s Hospital Group has admitted will be necessary.”
Dr Gilligan claimed the HSE was finding it “impossible” to recruit sufficient consultants to operate the new services for children in the light of “discrimination by government against all consultants appointed since 2012.”
“When he was Minister for Health, our current Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD insisted that the pay issue should be dealt with and agreed to the basic right of equal pay for equal work,” said Dr Gilligan.
“The current Minister for Health Simon Harris TD also committed in April of this year to begin a process to address the issue, yet nothing has been done.
“The cost of the Children’s Hospital has consumed the political system, yet no effort has been made to address how the satellite centers and the hospital are going to be staffed or how care is going to be delivered.”
“Since 2012, we have simply not been able to attract doctors to our health service and, at the same time, our newly qualified doctors are leaving Ireland to work abroad in health systems where no discrimination exists.”
