Limerick hospital to lose dozens of intern doctor roles

THE UL Hospitals Group is to lose almost half its current intake of intern doctors as a government support scheme ends.

A hospital spokesperson has confirmed that as of July, the number of these medics will go down to 54 in line with the end to national funding for the extra interns.

It was allocated an additional 47 intern posts on a once-off basis, meaning there were over 100 last year, in a bid to tackle the Covid-19 crisis.

Students are lobbying Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to keep the extra interns on.

Adare man Colum Horan, a final year student at the Royal College of Surgeons, said there is still a need for a greater number of interns as the Covid-19 pandemic is not yet over.

“Your intern doctors are the people who do a lot of the routine work – getting people ready for surgery and day procedures. They’re the first person to be called if someone starts getting sick on the ward. The loss of them is not good for anyone,” he said, arguing those left will suffer “burnout”.

"In the short-term if there are half the number of interns there were in 2020, there will still be the same number of sick people, the same number of people coming in for procedures. But there will be half the number of interns doing the work," he said, "For the people who do get jobs, they will have to work so much harder. They'll be run off their feet.

Mr Horan - who hopes to start working as an intern at University Hospital Limerick in July - pointed out that today's interns are the surgeons in a decade's time, with many not from the European Union.

"If you lose much of these Irish trained, but non-EU students, you'll lose them forever. It's something we as a health service and country cannot afford to do," he added.

Nationally, there will be around 350  fewer intern doctors working in the public health service.

It was when this emerged that this campaign began, with a number of interns linking up through social media.

Thousands of people have already signed the petition calling on Mr Donnelly to retain the intern doctors.

It can be found online here.