If our brightest young prospects get the impression that this is all the future has to offer they are likely to emigrate at an early stage leaving our current services in an even worse state. The matter is of fundamental importance and requires open debate by all parties including the public. Will ill patients and their families be satisfied with the 'sub' rather than consultant. The NCHDs are currently very unhappy about a number of issues. Excessive hours with poor overtime remuneration was voiced in a number of motions including 'that the IMO recognise the failure of the current mechanism to adequately address the payment of unrostered hours and to seek an independent arbitrator to structure a new mechanism'.
Training is another big problem for NCHDs.
The current RCPI proposals for specialist registrar training came in for criticism by the NCHD committee. They expressed concern about the training of large numbers of physicians in service posts with no hope of ultimately obtaining a consultant post. The conflicting issues of service and training are central to these arguments. In a busy clinical service formal training is the first casualty. It is palpably obvious that the consultant grade will need to be expanded in order to meet the NCHD training requirements.