Medical interns must be assigned to Cavan Monaghan Hospital - Smith

Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith has called for trainee doctors to be assigned to Cavan Monaghan Hospital.

The Cavan Monaghan TD said interns had not been allocated to the hospital despite its services expanding.

“The vast majority of level 3 hospitals have interns but Cavan-Monaghan hospital, despite promises, has not been facilitated with trainee doctors,” Deputy Smith said. “Without trainees, this hospital will have difficulty in recruiting and retaining Irish-trained doctors on qualification as they will not have the experience of working there previously.

“Over the years, management and staff at all levels have worked hard in the hospital to expand considerably the range of health services provided locally. It is regarded as having excellent training opportunities across a range of specialties. The hospital has the personnel and facilities to provide appropriate training for such doctors. The needs of smaller-scale hospitals must be addressed and would help the better delivery of health services throughout the country.”

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, in response to a parliamentary question from Deputy Smith, said he had looked into the matter and asked the Department to revert to him in terms of the allocation of medical interns for this year.

“We now have a record number of hospital consultants in the country and a record number of non-consultant hospital doctors, NCHDs, as well,” Minister Donnelly said.

“We are looking into this to see what can be done for Cavan-Monaghan in terms of medical internship deployment for the next round.”