Minister outlines her new vision for consultants at MUH

Consultants who signed up for HSE public-only contracts with the Department of Health have a duty to discharge their responsibilities on a seven-day week basis and this should be happening in Mayo University Hospital (MUH), according to Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

The minister was in Castlebar last Monday week, November 17, where she held a press briefing after touring the hospital. Asked what working arrangements she was advocating for staff at the hospital as part of current reforms taking place there, the minister replied: “We have agreed a series of reforms at macro level with additional staff put in. Mayo is the last hospital to implement the Safe Nurse Staffing Framework (a key government policy to ensure safe nurse-to-patient ratios) and I am very happy they have agreed to do that now and we have put the staff in to make that available. We want to see for example the Acute Medical Assessment Unit working not five days of the week but seven days of the week. We want to make sure the use of our additional resources are used in intelligent ways that are relevant to the needs of the hospital.

“So, the additional staff and the entire staff should not be rostered on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings but on Thursday evenings and weekends, when people present. I’ve heard the argument that if you move people from the week to the weekend that impacts patient safety, but it is not the case. If you have ten people, it is better to have eight of these during the week and two at the weekend, rather than ten Monday to Friday and then leave the hospital in crisis on Saturday and Sunday. The impact that has on patient safety is very significant and also on people coming in for elective surgeries that really need to happen, but that end up getting cancelled because of mismanagement or an inconsistent flow in the hospital. That is just not okay. It doesn’t happen in other parts of Ireland and shouldn’t be the standard accepted here either.” 

The minister clarified she is not asking for individual consultants to work seven days a week.

“I am not suggesting one consultant works seven days and falls over at the end of it. That is obviously ridiculous. But if you have signed a contract with the people of Ireland to work over six days or in the evenings and you are being paid a very good salary to do that - and we have doctors coming to Ireland to get the benefit of that contract - well you should discharge it and I expect to see consultants rostered at weekends who have signed that contract. I think that’s reasonable because it is you, the taxpayers, who are paying for it.” 

The minister said only 38% of the consultants are on the public-only consultant contract in University Hospital Limerick but the hospital has "already achieved an excellent flow including with the non public-only contract holders". 

"So it is possible elsewhere and is being done in other parts of the country, so why not also in Mayo.”

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.