Beaumont Hospital’s board was advised of “challenges” implementing new consultant roster arrangements in the emergency department (ED). The fact that three emergency medicine (EM) consultants did not hold the public-only consultant contract (POCC) was among the challenges, Lead Clinical Director Prof Peter Conlon informed the meeting in February.
The POCC was introduced in March 2023. Core hours can be rostered over Monday to Friday (8am-10pm) and Saturday (8am-6pm). Consultants who hold prior contracts are under no obligation to move to the POCC.
At Beaumont’s board meeting on 18 February, Mr John Pepper, Interim Director of Human Resources, provided an overview of consultant roster arrangements within the ED. He circulated an “indicative work placement plan” which provided a “status update” on current rosters in place. Continuity of care in handover periods at the end of shifts was “included in the ED rosters plan”. There were 11 EM consultants in total, including one consultant on maternity leave, heard the meeting. Work was “ongoing with the ED to implement the plan as soon as possible”.
The board requested that the plan proceed “as soon as possible with updates to be received on the monitoring of patient flow…”, according to meeting minutes. Beaumont had not provided a response by press time.
According to national HSE data, consultant working at weekends remains largely delivered through an on-call service. Consultant representative bodies have called for increased consultant staffing and a ‘whole-of-hospital’ approach to ensure effective implementation of weekend rostering.
In June, the HSE announced an agreement with healthcare unions to enhance service provision during evenings and weekends. The terms of the POCC
are unchanged.
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