As most of you know the NCHD doctors in Ireland will be going on strike tomorrow. As my contract this year is through RCSI, I am not an employee of the HSE. As such, legally I cannot join the picket lines. As a clinical tutor, in solidarity with my colleagues, I will not be bringing any of the students into the clinical areas tomorrow. It is with a heavy heart that I admit the necessity of this industrial action. 24 hour shifts are in violation of the decade old EWTD law. Numerous times the HSE has been found at fault in various legal proceedings. It is not the 24 hour shift against which we strike; 24 hours is a compromise on our part. Instead, we strike against 30, 36, 48, 72 hour shifts. We strike against the exhaustion that threatens our health and the safety of the patients for whom we are responsible.
We are not looking for more money, as the HSE would like to the public to believe. In fact, we will make less money with less hours worked. In response to Minister Reilly who suggested we are causing pain to patients, I would like to address our fallen colleagues, those whom the system failed, those who are no longer with us, because dedication to patients cost them their lives. To our colleagues in foreign countries, who have left this system for greener pastures, seeking a place they can practice and thrive as humans. Not one of us has inflicted pain on patients. Their safety is central to this strike. Their continued well-being and our ability to care for them is why we ask for a limit to shifts at 24 hours. Airplane pilots are not allowed to fly a plane for 24 hours straight, truck drivers are not allowed to drive that long; these rules implemented for safety, yours and mine.
I cannot do these hours anymore. I have slaved through 36 hours straight. I have battled fatigue and my conscience in order to complete menial tasks. I have cried in fear for my patients and myself. I have worked above my pay-grade and out of my depth, because we are spread too thin on the front lines. I have borrowed money from a senior colleague to take a taxi home after 32 hours on my feet without sleep, without food, without a bathroom break. I have worked 80 hour weeks and come home to study for required exams in my "free time." I have collected my partner from work when he has been on his feet, scrubbed in theatre for nearly 40 hours in a row. I have watched my friends leave. I have been asked what I'm thinking remaining here. These hours are putting lives at risk; patients and doctors alike.
I ask you to consider this. Consider what happens at 3am when you are frightened, sick, in pain, and need a doctor... We care. We are there for you. We want to be better doctors for you. We want to sleep so we can make better, faster, smarter decisions for your care, for your parents, for your children. We ask for your support with the industrial action. It is not convenient. But after a decade of our work, our energy, our study, our skill, our compassion and our trust being squandered by the HSE, we can no long stand by, keep our heads down and plow ahead, ignore the imminent collapse of the over-stretched system and have "faith" that the HSE will fix it. We take this action with health, healing, and care in mind. Enough is Enough. You deserve better.
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