Well that’s odd cause there’s gonna be more medical graduates now than ever before not to mention foreign practitioners. It’s typical of Ireland that I’d lay money I’ll see a headline in a few years about the oversupply of graduates and consequent lack of intern places.

how about if when the Junior Doctors have got thier training they have to repay for the training by working in Irish hospitals for a period of time – say 3 years at a reduced salary. Thus repaying their fees to the country and helping with our health care needs.

Interns start off on 32,000 basic pay per annum which is roughly the same as a primary school teacher. Any extra they make is earned by doing overtime. Many of them are not paid for their overtime hours. NCHDs are forced to work 80-100 hour weeks in many cases and 32 hour shifts are normal. This is illegal under European law. There have been cases of NCHDs being cajoled to bring their children to work while doing a 24 hour shift due to being put on a weekend call at the last minute and not having anybody to babysit. There have been a number of cases of NCHDs crashing their cars while trying to drive home after an illegal 24 or 32 hour shift.
They have to move house every 6 or 12 months to keep working. It may take over 12-15 years to become a consultant or 6 years or more to become a GP and this compares poorly with other countries.
For those individuals who suggest volunteering our services for free, I would suggest that all workers could work for free. How would you like that?
To address Sue Anthony specifically – I empathise that your skills are redundant at the moment but doctors do not need to work for free as there will always be a need for our services as long as there are human beings. That need is global and we have the right to freedom of movement….just as so many other people who are emigrating have the right to freedom of movement. Erecting a Berlin war around the NCHDs is not realistic. If we emigrate, will the government send out international arrest warrants?
If we wish to start interfering with the freedom of movement of people in the national interest, then why not be comprehensive? We should not only force NCHDs to stay in this country due to the need for their skills but we should eject people who are draining the economy of finances at this critical time. Isn’t it time to get real with the “sheltered” unemployed? What about the HSE suits and semi-state bosses who award themselves bonuses for failing? What about that failed former electrician, Pat Kenny (another NCHD-basher) whose 600,000 Euro plus salary is maintained by the TV licence fee which is a blatant tax on the poor? There is a whole mess of cocaine-snorting media and internet loudmouths in this country who are quite willing to denigrate NCHDs while being subsidised by the 50% plus of our paltry and hard-earned income that is wasted on them.
If free fees for medical school attendance are to be revoked, then surely fees for people who waste their time in university studying subjects Business, Philosophy, Arts etc that they are unable to or unwilling to use in the real world or choose to go into fields which Ireland has no demand should have to pay University fees as well. Why should medical students be the only ones targeted? I think that the day of free fees for university education is over but this should apply to all tertiary level students of varying levels of redundancy and usefulness and not perversely, only to the highly sought after doctors.

I find it amazing that the general consensus in Ireland seems to be that the solution to the NCHD shortage is to punish the remaining NCHDs. It looks like the brain drain has spread to the commentariat and the talking heads.

I don’t see any legal way to force medical students who are about to graduate to do indentured service in Ireland if they don’t want to. They never signed up to medical school under those conditions. There is nothing to stop NCHDs leaving the country if they want to and if the IMC denies them full registration to work in Ireland as a result, then that simply means that they are that much less likely to ever return.

Good luck recruiting foreign NCHDs. Out of 420 suitable candidate who were identified in India and Pakistan, a mere 20 have supplied all necessary documentation to be registered to work in this country. Perhaps we ask Obama to send in the SEALs to kidnap them to work as indentured servants for his ancestors?

One of the reasons that there is a lack of Irish trained doctors available to work after graduation in Ireland despite our abundance of medical schools is the fact that our medical schools are roughly 60% populated by overseas medical students who often leave straight after graduation. They have earned that right as they have to pay over 20,000 Euros per year in tuition fees to keep our underfunded medical schools financially viable. The shortfall of NCHDs which results is largely made up by recruiting foreign-trained NCHDs from overseas. This is a form of financial lunacy for the Irish taxpayer. It would be far more sensible to listen to NCHDs who are telling you in plain language why they are leaving these shores. The answer is not money alone. We NCHDs are being treated like cannon fodder and blamed for the crisis in the health service which is not of our making. Faced with a choice between working in a financially and morally bankrupt country where we work illegal and punishing rosters, where our training opportunities are being removed, where our prospects for career advancement are growing ever dimmer and where the general public and the chatterati seem to believe that we are greedy and unpatriotic and the choice of working in a country where you can actually be rewarded in your work and look forward to a hopeful future rather than being made a scapegoat, then the choice is a matter of logic.
At times, I think that his country not only has the government it deserves but also the health service it deserves.

Let them go and we can recruit junior doctors from round the world. Money grabbing shits!