Cuts ‘causing a manpower crisis’

By Gary Culliton. Pay cuts result in vacant hospital consultant posts, the IHCA has said. “Highly-mobile personnel” are being offered much better terms and conditions in other countries, it warned. “Ireland is facing a crisis, as it is not able to recruit and retain hospital consultants,” IHCA Secretary General Martin Varley said. “An increasing number of hospital consultant posts remain unfilled and so patients are not getting the care they need. Repeated cuts in consultants’ pay exacerbate this manpower crisis.” The Dáil has passed legislation introducing pay cuts in the public service arising out of the Haddington Road Agreement. The…