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New Board appointments at Medicines for Ireland

Alarming Rate in Consultant Losses

The Irish health system is losing its future Hospital Consultants at an alarming rate despite the huge need for them here, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association has warned.

The IHCA was commenting following the publication by the Medical Council of its ‘Your Training Counts Report for 2019 - 2020’* which shows that 44% of trainees intend to go abroad to practise medicine, at a huge loss to our acute hospital services. The IHCA said that this report was further evidence of the recruitment and retention crisis of doctors and consultants in the Irish health system. It added that the poor working conditions and other factors highlighted in the Medical Council’s report was feeding the cycle of poor retention and impacting on recruitment at Consultant level.

The report worryingly found that 86% of trainee specialist doctors were working more than 40 hours per week with 46% regularly working over 48 hours. The Medical Council report highlights the critical need for a considerable increase in the numbers of medical specialists and trainees across the entire health system to meet the projected demand for additional Hospital Consultants and match the increasing need for acute hospital services. Ireland has the lowest number of medical specialists per 1,000 population in Europe at 1.48, 42% below the EU average of 2.54. In addition, around one in five permanent Consultant posts in Ireland are either vacant or filled on a temporary or agency basis, some of which are not specialist registered. The Council’s recommendations on the supply and demand of medical specialists echoes the recently released strategic framework report on medical training from the Forum of Irish Postgraduate Medical Training Bodies, which has also called for greater alignment between postgraduate medical training and the workforce planning needs of our health service.

Hospital Pharmacists Annual Congress

The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) will soon be hosting the largest European gathering of hospital pharmacists in Vienna, Austria. The 26th Congress of EAHP, which will take place from 23 to 25 March, will bring together healthcare professionals from all over the globe that are seeking to improve their level of training. If you are planning to attend, don’t forget to register and benefit from the special rate which will expire on 1st February. EAHP’s Scientific Committee, under the lead of Thomas De Rijdt, has prepared an interesting and innovative Congress programme that caters to the educational needs of the profession and takes into account the latest developments in hospital pharmacy. The 26th edition of EAHP’s Congress – which will also celebrate our association’s 50th anniversary – centres around theme " Hospital pharmacists – changing roles in a changing world". The Student Programme will explore contemporary ethical challenges in hospital pharmacy practice, while the Pharmacotherapy Session will be looking at advances in heart failure pharmacotherapy. Different seminars will be hosted that will provide attendees with up-to-date information on for example working with limited resources, the role of the hospital pharmacist in disaster management, waste reduction, gene and cell therapies, compounding for paediatrics and medication safety. Hands-on workshops will focus on teamwork in the hospital, pharmacoeconomics, quality improvement and quality assurance, the prescribing cascade and patient-centred medication reviews.

New Appointments at MFI

Medicines for Ireland has announced the appointment of Managing Director of Accord Healthcare Ireland, Padraic O’Brien as new Chairperson of the organisation, with Paul Neill, Director of Generic Products for Teva Pharmaceuticals Ireland, taking over the role of Vice Chairperson. Since its foundation in 2016, Medicines for Ireland has been promoting the benefits of the increased use of generic and biosimilar medicines in Ireland. The organisation’s core objective is to improve the way Ireland procures and supplies medicines, in order to expand the patient access to affordable, lifesaving and life-enhancing treatment. Chairperson, Padraic O’Brien previously served as MFI Vice Chairperson in 2020 and 2021. Through MFI, he has been actively engaging with policy makers on both a national and European level with respect to increasing access of affordable medicines for patients, as well as highlighting the need for safeguarding measures to be putting place to help mitigate threats to the supply of medicines to Ireland brought about by Brexit and Covid-19. Newly appointed Vice Chairperson, Paul Neill is Director of Generic Medicines for Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest supplier of prescription medicines to the State and has experience working in the pharmaceutical sector for almost twenty years. “As we look to the future, Medicines for Ireland will continue to engage with the Minister for Health, the Department of Health, the HSE and Government on key issues, especially on expanding access and usage of generic and biosimilar medicines. In Ireland, we continue to remain well below what is the norm in most other European States, and while much progress has been made, much more can be done in this area,” said Mr Neill.

Paul Neill, Vice-Chairperson, Medicines for Ireland

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