ACTION IS NEEDED to curb workplace bullying and excessive working hours for doctors, some of whom work 90 hours a week, a new report from the Medical Council has warned.

The report from the regulatory body for doctors said that more than 1,100 doctors left the profession last year, with many of them citing reasons including lack of support, excessive hours and resourcing issues. 

“It is completely unreasonable to expect Doctors to work over 90 hours in a week and then provide no time to recover,” one disgruntled doctor told the council.

Doctor’s are not robots. I am fully expecting to ultimately retire from medicine very shortly at 32 years of age due to the expectations placed on us but I know that I want to at least give this profession another chance working somewhere else.

The number of doctors leaving the register actually dropped by nearly 22% last year compared with 2018. It was the first decrease in the numbers leaving since 2014. The majority of those leaving planned to work in another country.

The document found that nearly 58% of doctors self-reported working more than 40 hours a week and more than 25% work more than 48 hours a week.

There are 23,558 doctors on the medical register in Ireland and nearly 84% of them are active.

Nearly two thirds of new doctors on the register in Ireland received their medical degree outside of Ireland. 

The report highlights that the health service relies on doctors who completed their medical education outside the European Union and many of them do not feel valued in their workplace.

“The amount of bullying and disrespect I had to witness, the poor attitude to work out of hours by Consultants and lack of support of junior staff made I have never experienced in any other country I have worked,” one doctor who left register said.

Lack of permanent Consultant posts. This all made me feel too uncomfortable to continue.

Data collected up to August 2020 shows that 862 doctors had already voluntarily withdrawn from the register this year.

Again, the majority of those leaving wished to practise medicine in another jurisdiction. However, some stated they were leaving due to personal reasons resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Filling a raft of vacant consultant posts was also highlighted as a key concern in the report.

Jantze Cotter, Director of Professional Competence, Research and Ethics with the Medical Council, said that the “provision of safe, quality patient care is challenged, as doctors report; working in poorly resourced services, working in excess of the European Working Time Directive hours, poor pay and burnout.

This results in ongoing attrition of Ireland’s highly trained and experienced medical workforce.

“The patterns highlighted in previous reports are repeating themselves in 2019 and 2020. Only a commitment of collective, coordinated and planned action across stakeholders will produce solutions.”