Recruitment of public health consultants needs to be ‘built upon’ 

While the recruitment of 86 public health consultants was “a good start”, the specialty requires additional recruitment and expansion.

The national public and community health doctors meeting passed a motion which described the recruitment campaign as “a significant achievement”.

However, members called on the HSE to “ensure that there is continued recruitment and strengthening” of public health.

The motion noted that the recruitment to date needed to be “built upon and improved to ensure a fit for purpose, resilient public health function is embedded within the HSE both nationally and regionally”.

An agreement between the IMO and the Department of Health to establish 86 public health consultant posts has “essentially” been implemented, the HSE stated last year.

In May 2021, the IMO signed up to an agreement that included a commitment to establish these posts.

“The 86 consultants was a good start,” Dr Ina Kelly, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, told the Medical Independent (MI).

“But it was only step one.”

Despite the recruitment campaign, Dr Kelly told MI that Ireland still has fewer public health consultants per capita than many other European countries.

She also emphasised that the role of public health consultants is extremely broad under legislation, encompassing areas such as environmental health, commercial determinants of health, and building regulations.

“It was under-invested in for decades and now we are trying to play catch-up.”