Hi guys,

I recently had an editorial published in the Sunday Independent reflecting today’s medical job market since the ‘recession’ took it’s toll -

The medical recruitment industry is not reporting the same dismal problems seen in some sections of the recruitment industry

 Although recruitment in general has been badly affected by the world economic crisis, one branch within it — medical recruitment — has remained relatively unscathed.

While the general recruitment sector has felt the squeeze from the downturn in the economy, not all areas within it are feeling the strain. On the contrary, for the medical recruitment sector business continues apace, according to Jackie Brown, managing director of Jackie Brown Medical.

Indeed, the medical sector has long lamented Ireland’s lack of medical practitioners, dentists and nurses, so it probably comes as no surprise to those in the know that recruitment in this area remains strong.

Jackie Brown Medical covers all areas of the medical sector, procuring both medical and non-medical staff for medical or healthcare-based companies, hospitals and clinics nationwide.

Brown argues that the medical recruitment industry is not reporting the same dismal problems seen in some sections of the recruitment industry. This fact notwithstanding, she has seen a shift in the sector.

“I’ve been recruiting within this industry for the past eight years, and over the past few weeks I’ve had candidates come back to me who have been made redundant. That’s the only evidence of the downturn I’ve experienced, but there are jobs still available,” she says.

Brown adds that another sign of the changing times is that medical companies are now outsourcing their training needs. As an aside, the outsourcing sector is one industry that is likely to benefit from the shifting economic times as companies try to save on costs and become more competitive.

“The medical market is shifting: in some areas the downturn is actually creating employment, which is quite bizarre. You are unlikely to find professionals within the medical sector scrambling for jobs or on dole queues,” she says.

Brown does accede however, that there has been a drop in salaries for pharmacists, but adds that this has more to do with cutbacks by the Health Service Executive (HSE) rather than the current economic climate.

“Pharmacists’ salaries have dropped by over 10pc. Where previously their salaries would have reached €75,000- €85,000, now they range somewhere between €65,000 and €75,000.”

Likewise, recently qualified radiographers whose contracts have just expired are also finding themselves back on the recruitment market. On the other hand, there are some vacancies available, as radiographers have always been in short supply in Ireland.

With an increase in the number of private healthcare providers now operating within the medical sector, Brown believes that many medical professionals are moving from the public to the private sector, “because with private comes a lot of security,” she says.

Brian Crowley, director of healthcare recruitment company TTM Recruitment, agrees. “HSE restrictions on recruitment mean that, for example, clinicians and nurses on temporary contracts in public hospitals have started to look towards the private healthcare sector. This leads to a certain amount of brain drain from the public to the private system,” he says.

Further good news for medical professionals seeking employment, and Jackie Brown Medical in particular, is that despite the continued economic turbulence, business has been hectic for the medical recruitment firm. In the past four weeks alone, the company has signed up five new clients, all of whom sought it out.

Of course, Jackie Brown Medical’s profile reached new heights recently as it was named Recruiter of the Year at the National Recruitment Federation Awards last month. Having the same name as Quentin Tarantino’s famous hit film Jackie Brown hasn’t done the company any harm either.

Brown launched Jackie Brown Medical in October 2007, having previously worked for five years in acute nursing and for eight years in the medical recruitment industry. To win the Recruiter of the Year award is an impressive achievement, especially for a company so young.

“I was absolutely honoured by the award. It was the single biggest achievement of my professional life,” says Brown.

It was perhaps Jackie Brown Medical’s innovation that won it the award. The firm not only prides itself on the high level of customer service it provides, but also on its extensive use of technology. It recently launched a forum for medical and healthcare workers in Ireland: Jackiebrownmedical.ie.

The forum allows workers within the sector to log on and share any issues they have, get advice from contemporaries or simply let off steam. While it is still in its infancy, it has gotten its fair share of hits, and is expected to grow as it becomes more established.

“The recruitment industry is heavily reliant on web-based services. Recruitment is also a hugely competitive sector and our web presence is a vital ingredient to our success,” says Brown.

“Our website was developed in-house and we have made a point of embracing the social-networking phenomenon that has swept the web by including social bookmarking facilities and the forum for medical and healthcare workers.”

I have to ask what recession?

We have had a recent surge within our Medical Recruitment in particular in the last 3 weeks!

There is always the rush up to Christmas and new jobs for the new year, but more than that, people are on the move as there are vacancies and choices still!

This is very good news indeed for the Medical recruitment Industry and we have Medical and Pharmaceutical Companies knocking down our door seeking experienced Medical Professionals.

The salaries are remaining the same, so no change there either.

All in all, things are good for Medical jobs in Ireland and in the Medical Recruitment sector.

Areas particularly busy are Radiography, Medical Sales, Pharmaceutical Sales, Nursing and Medical Admin

Here’s to 2009!

Horray for Pharmacists!

We had recently noticed a surge of activity in Pharmacy Recruitment and this is one of the reasons why -

From 1st November 2008, the HSE will restore the mark-up it pays to Pharmacists from 8% to the previous rate of 17.66%. On September 11th the High Court found that the HSE was in breach of its contract with Pharmacists when it decided to reduce payments for the provision of drugs and services under the medical card scheme. The HSE was orded to pay the costs in the case. In response to the court ruling and in a major climb-down, the HSE announce on the 14th October that it had decided to restore the original mark-up arrangements from the beginning of November.

“In compliance with a recent High Court judgement, the wholesale mark-up the HSE pays to pharmacies for medicines supplied through the various medical card schmes will be increased on November 1st from 8 per cent to 17.66%”, it said.

Actually the HSE have already started restructuring their finances.  They are acting on the recommendations of a report they received in 2007.  They have already implemented 9 out of 25 changes.  And they certainly needed them.

The HSE inherited the financial structure of the old Health Board system.  That meant that they had a staggering 250 bank accounts spread throughout seven different banks.  The HSE also inherited 17 individual accounting systems.  In short it must be nearly impossible for them to keep track of where taxpayers money is going.

How much do the HSE think they can save by gaining transparency in their financial systems?  A whopping €100 million a year.  But there is a small snag.  Isn’t there always.  The new systems will cost somewhere in the region of €50million.  So it remains to be seen if the government will be willing to sign off on te HSE plans.

The Health services track record is not good.  They spent a fortune on PPARS pay systems that never worked.  In fairness to the Health Service Executive, they inherited that mess too.  It had been underway since 1995 and cost us a mere €150million in total.  We were still in the midst of the Celtic Tiger when that news broke and the general reaction seemed to be a lack of surprise but not the kind of outrage that we might see if we see a repeat performance in the current economic climate.  Deloitte were quite happy having made €40million in consultancy fees on that project alone. At the end of 2005 over €30 million had been spent on consultancy fees alone.  And what did the HSE have to show for that money?  Not one single element of the project had been implemented after 10 years!

But I’m sure the HSE will do a better job of undertaking a much larger project.  I’m sure it will only take the two years they expect it to take to roll it out.  And I’m sure it will only cost the €50million they say it will. The HSE had nothing to do with the Port Tunnel, or the Luas.  What could possibly go wrong?

At least the government are clever enough to ask serious questions before they sign on the dotted line… aren’t they?

Maybe it is time to get a job in IT…. I smell money.

We have been both pleased and surprised to see a rise in jobs for us in the last 6 weeks and some of our Clients are already booking us in for Recruitment drives in the first quarter of 2009!.

What economic crisis? - within Medical Recruitment and the Medical jobs market is bouyant.

Medical Sales is still a busy element of what we do, also there are more Pharmacy jobs coming back on.

Movement within Radiography is still favouring the specialist and experienced Radiographer ie - CT, Sonography, MRI and Dual Modality Radiographers.

Laboratory Sales is also busy.

Quiet areas are predominantly the HSE type roles within Allied Health.

Nursing roles are still very active - Seeking CSSD Manager and Theatre Nurse Manager and many other Specialist Nurse Advisors.

All in all - Here’s  to 2009! and to all the Medical Professionals out there!

Good evening,

I am Jackie and have been in Medical Recruitment in Dublin now for 9 years.

My background is within Surgical Nursing and 9 years of Medical Recruitment.

I now recruit across the entire Medical sector and am available to any job seekers in this area who have queries etc.

My speciality area is Medical sales jobs in Ireland.

Medical jobs in general have not been badly affected yet by our current climate, but there has been some evidence of a slow down in Pharmacy, Radiography and Allied Health.

I will be back in touch with more information very soon in relation to Medical sales jobs in Ireland.

Nice talking!

Jackie

I just read an interesting article that I would like to share. There is a small medical company in Dublin who 10 months ago got an overdraft of € 100,000 from a well-known bank to grow its business. This same company got a letter from the said bank a week ago to let them know that their overdraft has been reduced to € 30,000. As a result, two people had to be let go and the market share of the medical company has been reduced drastically as a result. The Irish problem is an old one ‘Unemployment’ and in order to beat this problem, banks have to allow small businesses the chance of survival, not bring them down on their knees. SME’s are only trying to help our ‘unemployment’ problem by hiring new medical staff but every opportunity that is created for growth is taken away by the banks just as quickly. Medical companies may have to move away from this way of funding and start thinking of new ways of raising new capital for 2009…..

The recent economic downturn hit early and hard for Pharmacists.  The HSE decision to reduce drug payments had a massive effect on Pharmacist Jobs.  It is only now, months later, that we are beginning to see the first signs of a recovery in the Pharmacy jobs market.

The news is not all good for Pharmacists though.  Salaries on offer are now roughly 10% less than they were before.

From a recruitment perspective we saw some recruitment agencies that had specialised in Pharmacist jobs in serious trouble for a while.

The Pharmacist jobs that are trickling onto the market at the moment tend to be senior positions.  Supervising Pharmacists have to be replaced when they leave their jobs.  We have also seen hospital Pharmacist positions poke their head over the HSE barricades to bring in new Pharmacists.

The private Hospital Pharmacist market, unhampered by HSE restrictions has seen Pharmacist Jobs created, but not in the numbers that would signal a full return to a healthy jobs market.

The market has not yet recovered for Pharmacy Technicians, but Pharmacy technicians were hardest hit with job losses and it would be expected that their recovery would be slowest.

Locum Pharmacist jobs suffered a bit of a blip, but it is now a good time to be working as a locum.  Pharmacy bosses are still holding back on hiring full time Pharmacists until the dust has settled further.  This gives rise to more Locum Pharmacist jobs becoming available as owners are slow to replace full time staff at present.

Given the scaremongering that took place immediately after the HSE announcements, the outlook at the moment is not at all bad! Medical Jobs in general are having a hard time, but much better than other industries.  I’d far rather be a Pharmacist right now than a construction worker!

This blog is written by experienced Medical Recruiters.  If you have an interest in Medical Jobs (ie, you work in a medical area or would like to) we hope that you will find this blog useful, informative and entertaining.  For job seekers we have included a ‘useful links’ section on the right, which will bring you to relevant job listings for various Medical Jobs.  The list of Medical Jobs will expand over time, as we find the five minutes necessary to put in the links.

We welcome comments in response to our blog posts, and if you have any areas or experiences you think we should cover here at Medical Jobs Ireland then please let us know!

While this blog is aimed at Ireland and the Irish Medical Jobs market we welcome input from further afield too!

The Recruiters that write this blog have years of experience both working in Medical fields and as recruiters for Medical Jobs in Ireland and the UK.  We will update the site regularly.