Why are doctors not coming to Derry?
A senior figure at Altnagelvin Hospital has said more needs to be done to promote Derry as an attractive place to live in order to attract more doctors to work here.
The comments came after it emerged that the Western Health Trust is already facing a deficit of £2 million, which is partly being blamed on the amount of money being paid to locum doctors.
Locum doctors are non-permanent staff who earn significantly more than their counterparts who registered on the NHS payroll.
The issue was discussed at the monthly meeting of the Trust board at Altnagelvin Hospital on Thursday morning, where the issue of recruiting permanent doctors as opposed to paying locums was discussed.
Speaking at the meeting, Dr Gerry Glynn said more effort needed to be put into advertising Derry as a place where doctors can have a good life.
“I was looking at the difference in an advert between here and Cumbria, and the advert for Cumbria was like a soliloquy, whereas the ad for here was a block as saying ‘JOB IN DERRY’,” he said. “We need to be making a bit more of a fuss about the place.”
Dr Glynn then criticised locum doctors, who he said ‘do the bare minimum’ for the money they receive.
“A pound spent on a locum is a pound thrown away, and they have no commitment to the place they’re in,” he added.
“They have no added value and you get nothing from them, except their presence.” He added that in contrast to permanent doctors and consultants, locums ‘do the bare minimum then bugger off’.
The Western Trust’s chair Gerard Guckian said ‘progress was being made’ in recruiting new doctors, adding that new doctors taking up positions within the Trust would make a significant difference in their costs.
He also echoed Dr Glynn’s comments about promoting Derry and the wider Western Trust area as a place where doctors could have a good quality of life, especially those currently living outside Northern Ireland.
“I can see how for a doctor in their twenties with London or another metropolis, there’s big excitement there,” he said.
“But when we look at the quality of life in Northern Ireland, and the level of education offered here, then these people may well be attracted back here again when they’re in their thirties.”
Mr Guckian also paid tribute to Alan Moore, Director of Strategic Capital Development with the Trust, who he said had been ‘very imaginative’ in how he had approached the task of recruiting new staff.
Meanwhile, the Trust’s Chief Executive, Elaine Way, said with regards to their advertising, and the advert Dr Glynn had referred to, they had been ‘constrained’ in their budget and it had been the Department of the Health who had told them to put in the ‘block ad’.