Medical Recruitment in Ireland is undergoing somewhat of a shake up.  As the economic depression plants its roots firmly in Ireland recruiment agencies in other sectors are being squeezed.  The multitude of recruitment agencies that sprang up to support the construction industry for example are in deep strife.  The clever ones started preparing for the decline several years ago and are now becoming well established in the market in other countries.

Other Recruimtent agencies have not been so fortunate and we have already seen more than a handful of agencies fold.  the figures are startling.  25% of Recruitment Consultants employed in 2007 are no longer working as recruitment consultants.

For those recruitment agencies that are at risk of going bust as their markets dry up Medical Recruitment looks like an attractive market that may save their companies.  This is because medical recruitment has not been subject to the same level of decline as other sectors.  The bottom fell out of financial recruitment.  Pharmaceutical Sales remained strong.  There have been shocks over the past 12 months in Medical Recruitment.  Pharmacists and in particular Pharmacy technicians have had a rough ride.  Overall though, the medical industry has held firm when compared with nearly all other sectors.  IT is the only other sector that still performs well, but even in IT there have been setbacks.  Dell announcing the winding up of it’s manufacturing base in Ireland has already led to rumblings of bad news from Intel and more can be expected.  Software remains one of Ireland’s strongest exports though.

Because Medical Recruitment has escaped fairly lightly to date we are seeing a huge rise in the number of recruitment agencies that now offer Medical Recruitment.  I even saw a recruitment agency that previously specialised in Catering now offering Medical Recruitment Services - an interesting mix.

While nobody likes to see businesses fail, the sad truth is that we are going to see a lot more recruitment agencies vanish before the end of this depression.  During the ‘Celtic Tiger’ years recruitment agencies were blooming, with new agencies opening up regularly.  The economy can no longer support the number of Recruitment Agencies that we have in the country.

There is a plus side to all of this for both Client Companies and Job Seekers.  The focus of the remaining agencies will have to shift more towards providing better service if they want to stay in business.  Larger Recruitment agencies will be able to sustain themselves through varying periods of decline, but for smaller agencies it is quality of service that will be the defining factor in giving them a fighting chance of being one of the survivors.

This is particularly true of Medical Recruitment.  Experience in the medical field is vitally important.  All recruitment consultants need an in depth understanding of the industry they are recruiting in. Nowhere is this more important than in Medical Recruitment.  However without providing a good service to Client Companies and Job seeking candidates, knowledge of the industry is worthless.

We are about to enter a phase in which the very best Medical Recruitment agencies will rise to the top and those who do not make the grade will be relegated to the dole queues.

I just read an interesting snippet that I thought I’d share with you.  The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has dubbed 2009 as ‘the year not to get sick’.

Why not get sick? (well, apart from the obvious reasons of it not being high on anybody’s wish list)

To paraphrase Irish Hospital Consultants Association Assistant Secretary General Mr Donal Duffy: The cutbacks planned for the emergency departments nationwide are much wider than just reducing the number of emergency units.

Basically, the HSE discovered that some hospital Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments had very few after hours patients which meant that staff were not busy during those hours and even that there were more staff than patients at various time.

The response has been to plan the removal of all Emergency Services from those hospitals. For instance, Acute services in general are to be reduced and that includes the Emergency Department (ED) in Nenagh General Hospital. The caseload will be shifted to the already struggling Limerick Regional Hospital.  GP’s from Northern Tipperary have pointed out that it will leave patients from Northern Tipperary without reliable nearby emergency services.  They also pointed out that there were up to 32 patients on trollies in Limerick Regional Hospitals Emergency Department at least once during the past two weeks.

The jobs of Medical Specialists do not look set to become any easier in 2009.

Hospital Hygiene Ratings for HSE Hospitals

Here are the all the hospital hygiene ratings results for all HSE hospitals.

Hospital Name	HSE Audit 1 2006 (%)	HSE Audit 2 2006 (%)	Hygiene Review Oct 2007	Hygiene Review 2008
Bantry Hospital	82	88	Fair	Poor
Beaumont Hospital	62	86	Good	Good
Cappagh Hospital	70	90	Fair	Very Good
Cavan General Hospital	71	76	Fair	Good
Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown	76	89	Fair	Fair
Coombe Women’s Hospital	76	90	Fair	Fair
Cork University Hospital	81	83	Fair	Fair
Ennis General	68	89	Fair	Fair
Erinville/St Finbarr’s	69	80	Fair	Fair
Holles St	79	85	Fair	Fair
Kerry General, Tralee	63	88	Fair	Fair
Kilcreene Orthopaedic	73	89	Fair	Fair
Letterkenny General	71	84	Fair	Poor
Limerick Regional Maternity	73	87	Fair	Fair
Louth County Hospital	77	86	Fair	Fair
Mallow General	88	91	Poor	Fair
Mater Hospital	70	84	Fair	Fair
Mayo General	68	82	Fair	Fair
Mercy Hospital, Cork	78	79	Fair	Poor
Merlin Park Regional, Galway	85	81	Fair	Good
Mid Western Regional, Limerick	73	87	Fair	Fair
Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar	63	94	Fair	Poor
Midland Regional, Tullamore	73	82	Fair	Fair
Midwest Regional Orthopaedic, Croom	80	90	Fair	Fair
Monaghan General	78	75	Fair	Good
Naas General	82	86	Good	Good
Nenagh General	71	92	Poor	Poor
Our Lady of Lourdes, NEHB	77	88	Poor	Poor
Our Lady’s Hospital, Crumlin	86	93	Fair	Fair
Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan	80	90	Poor	Fair
Portiuncula, Ballinasloe	80	82	Poor	Fair
Portlaoise-Midland General	65	84	Fair	Fair
Roscommon General	65	76	Poor	Poor
Rotunda Hospital	80	89	Good	Good
Royal Victoria Eye and Ear	81	93	Fair	Fair
S. Tipperary General, Clonmel	80	92	Fair	Fair
Sligo Regional Hospital	68	86	Fair	Fair
South Infirmary/Victoria, Cork	72	75	Fair	Fair
St Columcille’s, Loughlinstown	62	84	Fair	Poor
St James’s Hospital	86	86	Good	Good
St John’s, Limerick	81	92	Fair	Good
St Luke’s, Kilkenny	76	89	Good	Fair
St Luke’s, Rathgar	66	96	Fair	Fair
St Mary’s Gurranebraher	70	83	Poor	Poor
St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire	74	84	Poor	Fair
St Vincents Hospital, Elm Park	83	83	Good	Fair
Tallaght Hospital	78	79	Good	Good
Temple St, Children’s	79	85	Fair	Good
University College Hospital, Galway	85	88	Fair	Fair
Waterford Regional	62	86	Fair	Good
Wexford General	76	85	Poor	Fair