For many years, doctors from abroad have been coming to work in Ireland. But with so many of our own medical graduates leaving the country to make their careers elsewhere, are we now over-reliant on foreign doctors?
Dr. Ruairi Hanley believes these doctors have often had to deal with difficult conditions, including "low-level racism."
"Irish doctors are not sticking around - they're training in this country and emigrating. It's happening with both hospital-based doctors and GPs. So inevitably we recruit doctors from other countries, all over the world, but traditionally Pakistan, India and Bangladesh."
"They deserve an enormous amount of credit. These are some of the most dedicated doctors in the state. But they've been subjected to a certain degree of discrimination down the years."
Ruairi also says that many foreign doctors haven't made the same kind of career progress here as Irish ones.
"The Irish doctors typically want to work in major urban centres, whereas down the country in the smaller hospitals, that's where the foreign doctors often tend to work long difficult hours. But it's a vital service and without them, we'd be in big trouble."
"My biggest concern is: why are Irish doctors leaving? For many years, junior doctors went around saying they weren't interested in money, they just wanted to rise up through the ranks. What happened was the government took them at their word, slashed the consultant salary, and all of a sudden the jobs weren't being filled."
