Northern Ireland: Seriously ill doctors are forced to delay retirement because of occupational health inadequacies

Doctors in Northern Ireland who need to retire because of ill health or terminal illness are facing “serious and unacceptable delays” in being able to do so because of chronic workforce shortages in occupational health, the BMA’s annual representative meeting has heard.The meeting in Liverpool said it was “shocked and dismayed” that the department of health in Northern Ireland had failed to react sufficiently to the workforce crisis in occupational health.A motion, which was passed overwhelmingly by representatives on 4 July, called on the department to reinstate full pay for those doctors on sickness absence, who are caught up “through no fault of their own in these intolerable delays.”Catherine Anne Carson, who proposed the motion, said it was “frankly negligent” that doctors in desperate need of support do not have access to it because of the backlog in occupational health.Carson said, “The Department of Health in Northern Ireland has failed…
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