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As doctors continue to emigrate, Ireland is becoming more reliant on foreign-trained staff

Africa and Pakistan contribute the highest number of non-Irish doctors here.

IRELAND’S INCREASING NEED for doctors is mainly being met by employing foreign-trained doctors, according to a new report from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).

Research carried out by the RCSI’s Health Workforce Research Group found that approximately 700 Irish doctors graduate from the six medical schools in Ireland each year. However, 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 in this regard, with 28%, and Pakistan supplies more than 20% of Ireland’s foreign-trained doctors.

The report states that the systemic drivers of this trend include:

  • High rates of emigration among graduates of Irish medical schools, attracted by better working conditions, training and career opportunities in other English-speaking countries
  • The need to be compliant with the European Working Time Directive, which restricts hospital doctors’ working week
  • Increasing demand

The RCSI said 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.

The 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.

The RSCI said this means “efforts to put in place a specialist-delivered health service are being undermined”.

‘Brain drain’

Professor Ruairi Brugha, RCSI’s Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine, said: “We need high level recognition of the scale of the problem and we need radical responses, given the time and type of hospitals needed to train hospital specialists.

Currently, Irish hospitals are employing increasing numbers of foreign-trained doctors into posts that don’t provide these doctors with an adequate level of supervised training. This is not good for patients, or for these doctors’ careers.

Brugha said the high turnover of such doctors “confirms earlier research which shows that international recruitment is not an effective strategy”. He said that of those recruited are leaving Ireland for the same reasons Irish doctors leave, a process he describes as “brain gain, followed by brain waste, ending with brain drain”.

Brugha explains: “This involves firstly a brain gain through the recruitment of non-EU trained foreign doctors. Then ‘brain waste’ through slow or stagnant career progression for these individuals leading to deskilling, and finally ‘brain drain’ through the onward migration of these doctors, mainly to other wealthy countries.”

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”.

The RCSI said this means providing better working conditions such as 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 doctors who graduate here.

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    Mute David Wool
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:30 PM

    Moscow Mick. The champagne socialist who rails against the west and capitalism yet he’s a failed bankrupt who owns three wine bars. A stooge for dictatorships across the world. You couldn’t make it up!

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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:37 PM

    @David Wool: and hid mate ms Daly is also a fan of Mr putin

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    Mute David cotter
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:58 PM

    @David Wool: don’t forget the cheateau and vineyard..

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    Mute Aidy McBride
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    Feb 20th 2023, 9:54 PM

    @David Wool: he was probably on that refugees welcome march too

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    Mute David cotter
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:29 PM

    Ahhh mick.me old flower… nobody anywhere believes anything you say any more…
    Best you heat east and live in Russia where you can become the putin fanboy you always wanted to be……

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    Mute Anne Busher Collins
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:30 PM

    @David cotter: Did anyone ever believe him, David ….

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    Mute David cotter
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:40 PM

    @Anne Busher Collins: ahh…meh….. he had some good ideas at the beginning But greed and power went to his head…now his a laughing stock across the continent….

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    Mute Ciarán O' Donoghue
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:41 PM

    @David cotter: Mick challenges the status quo and isn’t afraid to go against the virtuous left. It’s refreshing to hear a different side at times.

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    Mute David cotter
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:54 PM

    @Ciarán O’ Donoghue: ciaran stop…just stop..nobody want to here that imperialist deluded crap mick spouts….I’m all for taking on the left and I’ve contemp for the status quo ,micks not the man

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    Mute Anne Busher Collins
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    Feb 20th 2023, 9:04 PM

    @David cotter: Emm. What about all the contractors who were left owed thousands when his construction business went bust

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    Mute Dave Ryan
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    Feb 20th 2023, 9:09 PM

    @David cotter: did he ever pay the money he owed his works and the tax Man….

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    Mute Slim Browne
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    Feb 21st 2023, 1:18 AM

    @Dave Ryan: I think DJ Carey is paying it for him !!!!

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    Mute Richard Starling
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:35 PM

    Wouldn’t trust that man under any circumstances

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    Mute Richard Ahern
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:40 PM

    A sloppy embarrassment of the bertie ahern ilk.

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    Mute Honeybee
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    Feb 20th 2023, 4:45 PM

    Mick , you make pour decisions but you are here for the right riesling, sip happens but how Merlot can you go? Don’t worry, where there’s a wine there’s a way.

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    Mute Irish big fellow
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    Feb 20th 2023, 5:27 PM

    The greatest joker in the pack. His membership of the EU Parliament give him the platform to really make an ass of himself. You do not see him rushing to give interviews to Irish media. Just buy a one way ticket to Moscow and go forward as a candidate for the Kremlin.

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    Mute Don Hogan
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    Feb 20th 2023, 6:34 PM

    Ireland deserves better than this yob who cares only about himself.

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    Mute Dave Barrett
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    Feb 20th 2023, 5:03 PM

    It’s all right Mick!, sur aren’t you only doing what the rest of them are doing. Lesson learnt.

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    Mute Colin Keogh
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    Feb 20th 2023, 8:39 PM

    Beggars belief who votes for this guy

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    Mute David A. Murray
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    Feb 20th 2023, 6:12 PM

    Can anyone narrow down the dates in which the next elections for MEP’s are due (2024)? The next Dail general election is due by the latest March 2025. So if Wallace fails to get re-elected as an MEP, there is a possibility that he could run for TD again, unless an early general election is called. Considering who the Irish public have frequently or repeatedly re-elected to the Dail, I wouldn’t rule out Wallace’s opportunistic political career being ended anytime soon.

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    Mute Stephen Foster
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    Feb 21st 2023, 2:38 AM

    Absolute cowboy

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    Mute Michael Phillips
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    Feb 20th 2023, 7:59 PM

    Nothing changes. They are all the same

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    Mute Jason Walsh
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    Feb 20th 2023, 10:33 PM

    He’d be all over someone else if they did the same but just fobbing it as a ‘mistake’ by himself. When will folk cop on to the fact he’s a liar and scammer.

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    Mute Michael Phillips
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    Feb 20th 2023, 7:58 PM

    Nothing changes. They are all the same

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    Mute Spud Geshletter
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    Feb 20th 2023, 8:29 PM

    Maybe take Bertie on for the park.
    Make great TV for all the licences holders

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    Mute Michael Phillips
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    Feb 20th 2023, 7:58 PM

    Nothing changes. They are all the same

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    Feb 20th 2023, 8:18 PM

    @Michael Phillips: You can say that again.

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    Mute Tony Martin
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    Feb 21st 2023, 2:47 PM

    A Leopold never changes his spot’s

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