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Search forDoctors crisis hits Derriford
Monday, December 01, 2008, 07:00
Vacancies in critical departments such as accident and emergency are putting pressure on medical staff, with consultants having to fill some junior doctor shifts, according to hospital bosses.
James Palmer, medical director clinical services for Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said the trust was urgently looking at 'creative' solutions, including recruiting from across Europe and South Africa.
There are 24 full-time doctors' posts vacant, 23 of them junior positions, out of the hospital's medical and dental staff group of 829.
Mr Palmer said: "Twenty-four sounds like a small number of vacancies but they are in critical departments. Half of them are in two main areas: medical junior doctors and in the emergency department."
Junior doctors are recruited through a national programme called Modernising Medical Careers, but this year there has been a shortfall of recruits both in Plymouth and nationally.
Mr Palmer said that around 250 junior doctors were recruited in the city in August, which fell short of allocated slots.
The lack of trainees has been blamed on a number of factors, including doctors being lured away to work abroad.
The NHS has also been faced with new rules that make it more difficult to recruit medical staff from abroad.
Mr Palmer said: "The impact of the Modernising Medical Careers process has meant that a great deal of overseas doctors have left the UK and, also, a significant number of UK trained doctors have moved to Australia and other sites for career development. So there's a shortage of young doctors here."
Mr Palmer said he has put together an 'action team' to examine how to address to shortage.
He said: "We have to find a better way of recruiting doctors. We very much relied on overseas doctors in the UK for covering hospital work. Then there was the issue of overseas doctors working in the UK and visas for work.
"That was resolved, but we have now got to pick that up again and encourage them to work here. We have good training to offer them.
"I'm going to see if we can establish some formal links with major teaching establishments in other European centres and overseas countries such as South Africa."
Mr Palmer told Friday's hospital board meeting that staff gaps are partly being plugged by locum doctors but existing staff, including consultants, are also having to fill in. He said this has lead to specialists have to take time out of consultancy work.
The staff shortages are also threatening the hospital's ability to meet European Working Time Directive Requirements, which state that junior doctors must only be working 48 hours a week by August 2009.
Mr Palmer said: "Junior doctors have to meet the European Working Time Directive Requirements. This is very much put at risk if you have a vacancy. I have got to have a plan that works to make sure all our rotas meet the requirement in the time frame."
He told board members he hopes to have recruited more doctors by April.
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