The IMO has called claims that consultants are not working enough weekend shifts in public hospitals a “fallacy”. In a statement today, the Organisation also highlighted what it called the “sustained shortfall” in doctors in the health system.

“The reality of this situation is that every weekend, consultants up and down the country are working on call, carrying out ward rounds, reviewing and discharging patients, and responding to emergencies,” said Prof Mick Molloy, Chair of the Consultants’ Committee of the IMO.

“This is in addition to working their core hours on a Monday to Friday. This work is critical to the functioning of our hospitals but is often absent from discussions about consultant availability and weekend working.”

The IMO said it was responding to media reports of a HSE briefing to Minister to Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, suggesting consultant weekend work in three regions of the country was still too low.

“Rostering consultants for core hours on a Saturday means that they must take another day off during the week or this additional work day to be classed as overtime which is not financially effective in the current constraints,” continued Prof Molloy.

“In order for weekend core hour rostering and extended day core hour rostering to be effective, a whole of hospital approach is required. Using a consultant’s core hours for an out patient clinic on a Saturday, rather than inpatient work on a Monday, is a poor use of resources.”

He noted that the Department of Health has stated that Ireland needs to have 110 consultants per 100,000 population. In terms of whole-time equivalents, Ireland is currently at 87.6 per 100,000, he added.

“In a situation where a consultant can have a full team, services and infrastructure available on a Monday, but not on a Saturday, it does not make sense to roster the consultant on a Saturday as there is less productivity. This is why hospitals are in some cases slower to roster consultants on a Saturday. The public-only consultants’ contract allows such rostering but there is no recognition of the additional staff required to make a comprehensive six-day health service a practical reality.”

He added: “The IMO supports any move that will facilitate better and more accessible care for patients throughout the week, but it is a fallacy to think this can happen without firstly having the correct numbers of consultant and healthcare staffing in place.”

‘Career opportunities’ was the most common reason cited by health staff who voluntarily left their position earlier this year, according to a new report.

The Health Sector Workforce Turnover Report stated the turnover rate across all HSE staff categories in the first quarter of 2026 was 1.8 per cent. This remains unchanged compared to the same period last year.

Overall, the initial 2026 data is consistent with the downward trend that has occurred since the first quarter of 2022, when the turnover rate was 2.4 per cent.

Specific figures for consultants show a turnover rate of 2.6 per cent in the first quarter of this year. This represents a slight increase of 0.2 percentage points compared with the same period of last year. By comparison, the turnover rate reached 2.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2022.

Of the 2.6 per cent turnover rate among consultants, 0.6 per cent represented external movement (ie, leaving the HSE).  A further 0.6 per cent represented internal movement within the HSE, while the destination of the remaining 1.4 per cent was not disclosed.

Overall, the report indicated a return to pre-2020 turnover rates, while noting the impact of recruitment measures implemented across services over the past year.

Of all health staff departures, 27 per cent were attributed to ‘retirement’, 10 per cent were ‘involuntary’, and 63 per cent were ‘voluntary’.

Of all those who voluntarily departed, either to leave the health service, or to move to another position within the HSE, ‘career opportunities’ was the most commonly cited reason, accounting for 37 per cent of departures.

It was followed by ‘personal’ reasons at 25 per cent and ‘job satisfaction’ at 21 per cent. ‘Emigration’ accounted for 6 per cent.

Of the staff who voluntarily left the public health service, 37 per cent said the decision was taken for ‘personal’ reasons.  This may include work/life balance, family or caring reasons, according to the report.  The next most common factor was ‘career opportunities’ at 27 per cent, while ‘job satisfaction’ and ‘emigration’ each accounted for 15 per cent.

Of those who voluntarily moved somewhere else within the public health system, ‘career opportunities’ (51 per cent) and ‘job satisfaction’ (30 per cent) were the primary factors by a significant margin.

This type of turnover data provides “valuable information” on workforce movements within the HSE and section 38 sector, a HSE spokesperson told Medical Independent.

“Accurate turnover data helps ensure that the health service can plan for future workforce needs and maintain safe, effective health and social care services.”

*See news feature for more. https://www.medicalindependent.ie/in-the-news/news-features/why-do-staff-leave-the-health-service/

The IMO has said that further examination into hospital productivity is needed in order to understand the factors influencing productivity and the measures required to improve the situation.

The IMO was responding to the publication today (11 July) by the Department of Health of health service productivity data and insights (available here – https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/e22bb-productivity-and-savings-taskforce-indicator-dashboards/ ).

Prof Matthew Sadlier, Chair of the consultants’ committee of the IMO, said: “While we welcome the publication of this productivity data today, it is important to note that the kind of blanket approach of comparing hospital sites is of little value in terms of understanding what is happening at individual hospital level. 

 “There are multiple factors that could be influencing this trend and which have not been addressed in this report, such as consultant access to clinics, level of MDT supports across all sites; patient treatment complexity and case mix; urgent versus non-urgent care; and access to diagnostics, beds and theatres which may mean that patients are making repeat visits to manage their conditions while awaiting inpatient care.”

The IMO noted correspondence from the HSE in June 2024 which acknowledges that key factors affecting productivity are not considered in the data. It said that “there are a number of reasons why there will be variances [in productivity] between hospitals, within clinical specialties”. These include the delivery of care through multidisciplinary teams; different types of consultant outpatient work; and greater inpatient demands.

 Prof Sadlier said that it was in everyone’s best interests to see productivity improve. “The IMO has repeatedly called for the introduction of measures that will enable consultants to see more patients. The trend identified in this report needs further analysis so that all the factors at play are understood and appropriate supports put in place. Blaming consultants is not the solution.”

He added that the IMO was increasingly concerned about waiting list numbers and the lack of capacity in the system.

“Our chronic shortage of bed capacity and the ongoing recruitment freeze have resulted in ever-lengthening waiting list numbers which in many cases are resulting in poor patient outcomes. A properly resourced and funded plan is urgently needed to ensure our system can deal with both urgent and non-urgent care and any investigation into hospital productivity needs to take all factors into account.”