It is anticipated that the consultant workforce in Emergency Medicine in Ireland will need to almost double in size by 2038, according to a new report from the HSE National Doctors Training & Planning.
The NDTP Report on Emergency Medicine Workforce in Ireland 2024 – 2038, stated that at present, the Irish health system had a lower number of Consultants in Emergency Medicine per capita than comparable international peers and an over-reliance on Non– Training Scheme Doctors (NTSDs).
At present there are 182 Whole-Time Equivalent (WTE) Emergency Medicine Consultants in HSE funded services in the country – 68.2% male and 31.7% female. Eighty-one work in Model 4 Hospitals, 74 in Model 3 Hospitals and 2.2 in Model 2 Hospitals. In addition, there are 21 Specialist Paediatric Consultants in EM.
As of June 2024, the estimated WTE Emergency Medicine Consultants in the private sector was approximately 5.6% of the total WTE of the public sector, when excluding workload in exclusive Paediatric Emergency Departments (PEDs).
When accounting for paediatric emergency care and also the private sector, the total demand for Consultants in EM in 2038 was determined to be 335 WTE.
