The Health Minister is being lobbied to reverse plans to cut over half of the positions for newly qualified doctors at South Tipp General Hospital.
A group of medical students have come together in an effort to highlight the plans which would see the Clonmel hospital lose 10 of its current 19 intern doctors.
The issue has been raised in the Dáil by local TD’s who are calling on Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to step in.
The group is led by Clonmel native Dr Cormac Duff – speaking on Tipp Today earlier he said it’s vital that the number of doctors is retained.
“Covid hasn’t gone away over the last year – it’s still raging as a pandemic throughout Ireland.”
“Our vaccine rollout is still very slow with only 1-in-20 Irish people having the vaccine compared to 1-in-3 in Britain. We’ve new Covid variants coming in from the UK and South Africa that are more dangerous and more contagious so we need these doctors more than ever.”
“South Tipp General is set to lose more doctors proportionally than any other hospital in Ireland – 10 of their 19 intern doctors are set to be lost in July if the HSE cuts go ahead.”
Independent TD Michael Lowry has raised the issue with the Health Minister, saying it’s a move which is “impossible to understand”.
He says it’s a decision which has to be reversed, given the current condition of the health service.
“This years graduation class of the 1,200 nationally only 700 will be retained. I find this incredible because our health service is understaffed and under enormous pressure and it’s really baffling that the HSE are forcing doctors who trained an qualified in Ireland to emigrate to pursue careers abroad.”
