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New President for RCSI Female President and female Vice President elected together for the first time in College’s history Pictured (right) is Professor Laura Viani, newly elected President of RCSI with Professor Deborah McNamara, RCSI’s new Vice President
my great honour to be elected today as President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) has announced the election of Professor Laura Viani as the new President of the College and Professor Deborah McNamara as Vice President. Professor Viani takes up office following the College’s biennial Council Elections which have seen a female President and female Vice President taking up office together for the first time in RCSI’s history. Professor Laura Viani is a consultant otolaryngologist and neurotologist at Beaumont Hospital and the Children’s University Hospital Temple Street. She is Director and Professor of
the National Cochlear Implant Programme and Hearing Research Centre and is founder of this national specialty. She replaces outgoing President, Professor P. Ronan O’Connell. Professor Deborah McNamara, a consultant general and colorectal surgeon at Beaumont Hospital, has been elected as the new Vice President. She has built a deep experience of the healthcare system as co-lead of the National Clinical Programme in Surgery and as a national healthcare quality improvement leader. Speaking on her appointment, Professor Laura Viani said: “It is
“My presidency of RCSI follows the global pandemic and HSE cyber-attack which have presented our surgical community with challenges that will shape the future of surgery for years to come. “With unprecedented numbers of patients having operations cancelled and on surgical waiting lists, it is critical that we secure the future of surgical services for our patients. Providing the highest standards of surgical training and fostering of surgical professional excellence is central to maintaining these vital services. “The rise of online learning has opened up new opportunities to bring together surgeons from
around the world, united in the task of re-establishing safe, timely and equitable access to elective surgery. I look forward to working with our community of 10,000 Fellows and Members across 87 countries and sharing our expertise as we build a virtual network for continuing surgical education. “I am particularly conscious of supporting our surgical trainees whose training has been disrupted over the past few years. RCSI will continue to use the excellent facilities of the National Clinical and Surgical Skills Centre at 26 York Street to provide innovative ways of training to complement hospital experience. I will advocate on behalf of our trainees to ensure our future surgeons will gain a world-class training experience.” Professor Laura Viani has more than 30 years’ experience as a consultant otolaryngologist and neurotologist and is internationally renowned as a leader in hearing sciences and surgery. Over 30 years ago, she conceived of the idea of a National Cochlear Implant Program and persuaded the Department of Health of its necessity and established the programme at Beaumont Hospital. In 2016, she set up a multiinstitutional hearing research centre involving RCSI, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and universities in USA and Latin America.
Critical Pressures on Health Service Dr Clive Kilgallen, the new President of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has warned that the health services are facing a series of crises including unacceptable waiting lists, an exhausted workforce, poor morale and major problems with recruitment and retention of doctors. Dr Kilgallen said the coming year would be critical for patients as there is a pent-up post Covid demand for treatments and care. Dr Kilgallen was making his inaugural address to the AGM of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) which took place today in Aviva Stadium in Dublin. This was the first in-person AGM held by the IMO since 2019 as Covid forced the cancellation of AGMS in 2020 and 2021.
He also also confirmed that the NCHD Ballot for Industrial Action will continue with the result expected on the 9th June next. Dr. Kilgallen noted that the Minister for Health (who addressed the AGM) had accepted the arguments of the IMO that the situation facing NCHDs was – in the words of the Minister – “completely unacceptable”. Dr. Kilgallen said it was now for the HSE and Department of Health to commence negotiations with the IMO to resolve these serious issues. Dr Kilgallen said that the Covid Pandemic exposed the fragility of the health system and while everyone had made heroic efforts to manage the crisis over the past two years, the reality after Covid was the same as the reality before Covid. All sections of the
JULY 2022 • HPN | HOSPITALPROFESSIONALNEWS.IE
health services are under-pressure following years of under-resourcing. He added that the country needs an additional 1,600 general practitioners in the next six years. In the acute hospital sector, there are almostr 850 unfilled consultant positions and the National Doctors Training and Planning group in the HSE estimates that we will need an extra 2,000 consultants by 2029. In terms of bed capacity, we need 5,000 acute beds. Mental health has always been underfunded and suffers greatly and Public health and Community Health doctor numbers are half of what are needed. On NCHDs, Dr Kilgallen said, “These doctors are the future of our medical services. Without NCHDs, there will be no future general
practitioners, consultants or public health doctors. When I listen to their stories, they feel forgotten. They feel they are being treated with contempt. They feel that they do not matter. “As we have heard in their own powerful words today and in recent weeks, many of our NCHDs are working between 70 and 80 hours a week; with many of them working shifts of more than 24 hours. They are not even being paid fully for the hours they work. The current contract simply does not meet the needs of the NCHDs or the reality of the new demographics of the medical workforce. We don’t want industrial action – nobody does, but something has to give. And let me be very clear, the NCHD dispute has the absolute support of doctors across the country.”
