StandingUp4NCHDs

What is it about and what does it mean to patients?

The basic facts are this: working conditions for doctors are poor in this country, and despite numerous campaigns, conditions have failed to improve over last 10 years. They are bad for other categories of doctors (young consultants, public health doctors, and GPs) , but this campaign focuses on the 7000+ non-consultant hospital doctors.

So, are NCHDs same as “junior doctors”? It’s a term used in the media, but using “junior” misleading. Non-consultant grade doctors may be as old as retirement age, with anywhere from 1 – 30+ years of clinical experience. These are mature and highly skilled professionals; we are not talking about students.

It is about money? Not entirely. Doctors would like to receive their entire salary, as per their contracts. It’s really about quality of life.

What’s so bad about being an NCHD? It’s truly the working conditions: hours and toxic environments. This directly leads to physician burn-out. Non-EU doctors may also not have training recognised or be denied access to career progression schemes/higher training, leaving them working in jobs that they are technically over-qualified to do for years.

Whether you support the action or not, does the outcome matter to you? Yes, in 2 important ways:

1. Long waiting lists are due to a doctor shortage. Irish doctors are emigrating in large numbers. Our hospitals require large amounts of hospital doctors to run safe and quality care. They also aren’t staying to be consultants or GPs.

2. When you or a loved one are in hospital, the quality of the care you receive can be negatively influenced by short-staffing.