Was this article written by the same HSE bosses who get 350,000 for a 40 hour week? I challenge your papers journalist to try the week of an NCHD - see how you feel after a 36 hour shift with 1 hour sleep. I get €70,000/annum (includes overtime) for average 80 hours a week. My accountant friend gets almost that for 40. A brick layer gets 3 times my basic salary. The state will not train enough doctors and so we are forced to do huge hours. All NCHD doctors are training and learning on the job - the grant can only be used for training/education.

Why does no journalist investigate the HSE’s failure to get rid of any of the layers of administrative staff since the health boards were amalgamated? Why is no journalist interested in investigating why Prof. Drumm thinks a return to the old health board system may be on the cards?
Instead, we have propagandists who are delivering the HSE propaganda to soften up NCHD doctors so that we are prepared to do overtime for much the same pay as our basic wages. Of course, the HSE say they will regret it if patient care suffers. The best thing that the HAS mandarins could do to ensure patient care does no suffer is to fire unnecessary administrative staff, fire any unnecessary NCHD doctors they can find, tell the nurses that they too will have to do mandatory overtime instead of voluntary overtime (which they can pick and choose to suit their tax situation as opposed to suiting patient needs) , install a proper automated blood sample delivery system so that 30% of porters can be let go, work to ensure that health-care is provided by the consultants and not merely by their registrars as happens for most public patients.