u/mariskat

Honestly impressed by the Assistant CD in Letterkenny drawing up this report, really clarifies how the push for consultants on-site is not a solution to our actual problems:

"It noted that GP practices were closed on Saturdays and while the GP out-of-hours service in Donegal had been informed of the service “no referrals or telephone enquiries were received”. It said in the cardiac investigations area there was no staff interest in routine Saturday overtime, weekend staffing shortages already existed, annual, sick and maternity leave were not routinely backfilled and industrial relations issues prevented additional duties. It said there were insufficient consultant radiologists, radiographers and sonographers and that Saturday pathology operated as an emergency on-call service only."

From my time working in a private hospital that I'd prefer a public to an Affidea radiology report any day of the week. This certainly confirms my position.

I can understand how this: "the Irish Medical Council confirmed that medical professionals working outside the State through telemedicine companies do not require registration with the Irish regulator" is the case, but it would reduce my confidence in any provider using telemedicine as part of their service.

Above article is from July but relevant. We've had a couple of requests recently for details on the Irish context in primary care from a move-to-Ireland perspective. We aren't encouraging move-to-Ireland questions as they quickly become monotonous, but in general, those of us who don't work in primary care can sometimes lack perspective on present conditions. Particularly those of us who now only distantly remember a few weeks of placement (though I fondly remember being sat down and advised on the financial advantages of rural GP-ship vs psych consultancy pre the new contract - that guy made some interesting points).

Is lack of GPs the biggest issue where you're working? What about changing expectations of primary care? Backlog of work due to waitlists? Everyone coming in looking for a GLP-1 agonist? Is the schedule as regular and manageable as your hospital colleagues imagine it is? Does the money match your expectations? Give us your gripes and your joys.

I'm making a call on a research project design and am stuck on the fact that I am reaching a point of fatigue with doing surveys. Every time the College, the IMO or whoever sends around a new survey, I get annoyed now. Can I really inflict another of these on everyone? How do you feel about surveys? Is it ok as long as you feel the outcome is useful to you? Do you ever actually fill them out?

Does your training body have a good centralised source of information? Do you think trainees have a clear understanding of how things like their portfolio and post allocations work? Is the pathway to asking for part time roles or disability accommodations clear? Do you understand how maternity and parental leave work and which service will pay?

Within psychiatry I have often found this information is disorganised when available, and trainee whatsapp groups end up very repetitive in terms of questions. I'd love to hear how your scheme or department does things, well and badly.

The 24 hour HSE things are a nice idea but let's be real, the government has no real interest in providing the resources needed to have a full MDT at weekends.

What changes do you think would make a real difference in your area?

We talk a lot about acute bed space in psychiatry and of course it is dire but the places that have genuine acute outpatient follow up - guaranteed same week reviews - work much better overall I think, regardless of bed space.

Doctors of Ireland, this is your subreddit. Please leave any suggestions below, serious or fun.

Helpful suggestions might include, but are not limited to:

• Rule changes or additions.
• Stickied threads, megathreads, or wiki suggestions.
• User flairs.
• Sub design/icon/background suggestions.
• Semi-regular threads you would like to see.
• Educational content.

On the same note as the TSS 'best buy' question - are people mostly doing things recommended to them by colleagues and friends? Do any of you actually read the emails sent to you by your college/the NDTP about things? I'm mainly asking because I find the same questions seem to go around in work groups all the time about this stuff.

In psychiatry there's a few standard answers about psychotherapy courses and things, a few masters that loads of people seem to do (to variable effect) and then there have been a few times some real opportunities that were properly funded by the HSE but then not repeated, so it was really luck of the draw who had the knowledge and time to take up the opportunity. The latter were mostly the best things I got to do during BST, whereas the courses I looked up myself or did on recommendations from friends were fairly hit and miss.

For any "Should I move to Ireland"/"What are my odds of getting a post in X as Y"/"If I'm studying in X country do I have any chance of getting a job"/"Do I need to do X exam"/"What status under the IMC guidelines would I qualify for" questions.

No advice on this thread is official advice, read www.medicalcouncil.ie/ and https://www.medicalcareers.ie/ for formal sources of information.

The training colleges all have their own websites, see https://www.rcpi.ie/ https://www.rcsi.com/surgery/training/surgery https://www.irishpsychiatry.ie/ for programme-specific details.

Generic country moving advice can be found at https://www.reddit.com/r/MoveToIreland/

We have at several times over the last two years had the discussion on r/JuniorDoctorsIreland that the name wasn't ideal and some megathreads and moderation might be helpful. This new subreddit is an attempt to fix these two issues. I am u/mariskat, your local self-important gossip (/psychiatry trainee).

What to Post
Anything of interest to doctors (training and non-training) in Ireland. We'll set up a megathread for international doctors/considering moving to Ireland questions, and if there are other repetitive topics we may do the same.

Community Vibe
Open to any and all discussions about working as a doctor in Ireland, lighthearted or serious, as long as it's not too repetitive (except complaining about changeover, which should be exactly the same twice a year.

How to Get Started

1. Introduce yourself (in vague, non-doxxable terms) in the comments below.
2. Post something today!
3. Interested in helping out? We're looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.

Let's see how this goes.

We've seen some laudable efforts to make positive and varied posts recently here to interrupt the job search pos tedium. However, it is time to return to our roots: complaining. What is the well (or badly) intentioned advice you see given to trainees that you hate? For interviews/exams/anything.

Here's an example from my own gripes list: 'Just publish it in a worse journal'/'make sure you get something published out of [this pointless project]'. There's enough research waste around, and doctors are some of the worst culprits. If you wouldn't read it don't write it.