Docs who can’t work at UHG paid €110,000 by the Health Service

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

Eight junior doctors recruited from overseas by the HSE West for University Hospital Galway have been paid more than €110,000, despite not being allowed to work. 

At the end of June, a group of 18 junior doctors were brought over from India and Pakistan for work at the hospital – however, they were unable to work because they were not registered with the Medical Council. 

Since then, 10 of the doctors have received ‘Fitness to Practice’ certificates and are employed at the hospital. 

However, the other eight have spent the last 14 weeks unable to carry out duties – they can only participate in clinical observations. 

The Department of Health subsequently ordered the HSE to pay the doctors backdated to July 1. 

Chairman of the HSE West Regional Forum, Councillor Padraig Conneely said: “It’s another major cock-up by the HSE. They bring over these doctors, not knowing they wouldn’t be able to work, and now the Department has told them they must be paid. 

“They’ve already cost an estimated €112,000 and they can’t even work. We still don’t even know when they will be cleared for work. 

“It is a disgraceful waste of money, and yet another part of the dysfunctional system that is the HSE. There is no joined-up thinking in the way the HSE goes about its business.” 

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel