u/Consistent-Cook-2023

I genuinely hope this strike goes ahead. If it gets cancelled again because of some rubbish deal, then maybe it’s time for all of us to leave the IMO en masse. Let’s see how they’re going to fund themselves when the membership starts walking out.

They already stood down a strike that had been voted for by members not too long ago. If they do it again, what exactly are members supposed to think?

And it’s not just the strikes. Look at study leave. The contract supposedly guarantees it if you apply at least six weeks in advance, but it’s still ultimately subject to “service needs” — a deliberately loose and vague clause that teams can use to deny study leave whenever they
want. How is that a meaningful guarantee?

And IMO deserves criticism for this. If they negotiated and accepted a contract with such a weak, open-ended clause, then they helped create the problem.

The same thing happens with pay issues across different hospitals: problems drag on and on, people wait to get paid, and eventually it gets sorted. This happens so often that you’d think there would be a proper system to deal with it by now.

These are not exactly obscure or unforeseeable problems. They keep happening but our union is still so inept at dealing with them.

I’ve worked with some excellent IMGs, so this isn’t meant as a criticism of IMGs as a whole.
What concerns me is that I’ve also worked with IMG doctors who didn’t seem ready for independent practice.

I’ve seen colleagues spend a lot of time hiding in the Res rather than on the ward, write clerking notes that look largely copied from the ED note or GP letter, and struggle with aspects of clinical knowledge, communication, or spoken English that could affect patient care.

It sometimes feels as though these doctors can spend years in standalone posts with limited supervision and still eventually be signed off as consultants, despite ongoing gaps in their skills. Once appointed, some appear to have significant diagnostic uncertainty and regularly need input from other specialties for decisions that should arguably fall within their own remit.

I’m not saying this applies to everyone, and I may just have had a particularly bad experience.

But again, some of the non-IMG SpRs are quite shocking as well in terms of how much they do not know despite being quite advanced in their HST. It feels as though training standards and progression have become increasingly variable, particularly since HST places were expanded post Covid.

The most frustrating part is that as a trainee, you look forward to working with these registrars and consultants because you expect to learn from them. When the person supervising you lacks confidence or isn’t a strong clinician, let’s be frank it’s a complete waste of time for trainees. Instead of developing under experienced mentors, you can end up feeling like you’re learning very little, or even picking up poor habits.

I could be wrong but isn’t it illegal for doctors to prance around on the wards and other clinical areas without Garda vetting? Or are the new interns exempt from this?