Press Release: Tuesday 1 April 2025
Minister Carroll MacNeill outlines baseline for on-site consultant rostering.
- Welcomes improved Emergency Department performance over St Patrick’s weekend.
Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD, has today (1 April 2025) brought a Memo to Government on reducing Emergency Department overcrowding by delivering urgent care services over seven days and ensuring that all staff, including consultants, are rostered over seven days and in the evenings.
Minister Carroll MacNeill stated
“The impact on patients and their families from the very high level of hospital congestion experienced in early February post the St Brigid’s day bank holiday was too great to remain unresolved.
“I requested the HSE to provide an analysis of the consultants rostered over the St Brigid’s weekend and to increase the number of senior decision makers rostered onsite for the St Patrick’s weekend, to ensure adequate cover was in place.
“The increased on-site senior decision maker presence over the St Patrick’s bank holiday weekend was a major factor in the significant 70% reduction of trolley numbers when compared to St Brigid’s weekend.
“I would like to thank healthcare staff for their effort and commitment at all times, especially now as we move to making this increased onsite weekend presence of senior decision makers the new baseline.”
Preliminary analysis of HSE roster data shows that:
- Approximately 80% of consultants are rostered during the day, Monday- Friday, with most weekend cover being provided by an on-call service.
- 12% of consultants are rostered to work in the evenings.
- 11% of consultants are rostered on a Saturday and 6% on a Sunday.
Ahead of the St Patrick’s Day weekend, consultant rosters for the bank holiday weekend were submitted nationally for review from all sites. These were assessed and where it was identified that the consultant cover was not sufficient, sites were asked to re-do rosters to ensure adequate cover.
This resulted in improved transparency of local rostering arrangements and sets a much clearer expectation of the need for on-site rostering over any historic on call arrangements.
The Minister’s request for deeper analysis of hospital consultant rostering in all acute hospitals, has resulted in the development of a new rostering dashboard. This enables us to see the rostering arrangements for very hospital, every specialism and every consultant in the country. This new visibility now enables more efficient and effective rostering of senior decision makers in the evenings, on weekends and public holidays.
See Figures 1 & 2 –
Figure 1. Preliminary breakdown of how All consultants are being rostered currently (sample week) for all sites including community, public health and corporate functions
This information is subject to validation by the HSE
Data from Figure 1 shows that all consultants are currently being rostered.
- It shows that approximately 80% of consultants are rostered during the day, Monday- Friday, with most weekend cover being provided by an on-call service.
- 12% of consultants are rostered to work in the evenings.
- 11% of consultants are rostered on a Saturday and 6% on a Sunday.
Figure 2. Preliminary breakdown of how Public Only consultants are being rostered currently
(sample week) for all sites including community, public health and corporate functions
This information is subject to validation by the HSE
Data from figure 2 shows that despite the Public Only Consultant Contract providing for rostered work from 8am-10pm Monday to Friday, and 8am-6pm on Saturdays, the majority of consultants are still only working during the day Monday-Friday.
The two graphs above show us that even though 62% of the consultants are on the POCC, this has not translated to a shift in working patterns.
Minister Carroll MacNeill stated:
“The Public Only Consultant Contract providing for rostered work from 8am-10pm Monday to Friday, and 8am-6pm on Saturdays, however the majority of consultants are still only rostered during the day Monday-Friday.
“Our attention must now be focused on realising the benefits of the Public Only Consultant Contract by maximising the use of the hours in the contract to increase access to services in the evenings and at weekends.
“This is essential for our emergency departments, our waiting times and our broader use of existing hospital infrastructure. We will approach these in a sustained and sequential way over the next six and twelve months to achieve the best possible use of all our healthcare assets – most importantly our excellent health care staff on whom our patients depend.”
HSE management are working to ensure that changes to consultant rosters are implemented in a sustainable manner and that the improved performance over the St Patrick’s weekend is built upon.