Hospital fined for breaching work hours

Cavan General Hospital has been fined almost €40,000 for the breach of regulations concerning doctors’ working hours at the local facility in the first six months of this year.
The bi-annual fines, totalling €37,917, were handed down last month and were based on the percentage of Non Consultant Hospital Doctors (NCHDs) who were forced to work in excess of the maximum 24-hour shift.
One-in-three hospitals is still not compliant and continues to impose illegal working hours, according to the Irish Medical and Nurses Organisation (IMNO). They maintain that almost 200 doctors are working in excess of 24 hours and 30% are working beyond the 48-hour limit set by the Directive.
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda faces fines of €102,083 up to May.
There remains ongoing engagement between health service management and the IMNO following the agreement reached at the Labour Relations Commission in 2013 that provided for a National Verification and Implementation Group to monitor the compliance with working time measures.
A spokesperson for CGH told The Anglo-Celt this week that the hospital continues to try to fill all vacancies. 
“However like many other hospitals in the country, we face challenges in this regard due to a lack of Junior Doctors available to fill these positions,” they said.