ANY chance of a quick resolution to contract negotiations with hospital consultants were dashed yesterday after their representative associations have rejected the latest pay offer.

HEALTH professionals and opposition TDs have described the payment of a €32,000 bonus on top of a €400,000 salary to health service chief Professor Brendan Drumm as premature and incomprehensible.

THE country’s GPs and doctors have said that they aren’t to blame for the A&E crisis, repeating their view that more acute hospitals beds are needed if trolley figures are to drop.

AN official report which found the clinical director of Galway Hospice had bullied staff has been welcomed by management at the facility.

The prospect of industrial action by the country’s hospital consultants loomed with the eight-to-one majority decision yesterday by members of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) in favour of action.

Claire O’Sullivan

HOSPITAL consultants have been summoned to a meeting with officials from the Competition Authority next week to discuss the deals which fix the fees for procedures between consultants and VHI and BUPA.

The Taoiseach has criticised the Irish Hospital Consultant Association's campaign of action which begins today, saying: “For people to be threatening to withdraw service from patients over insurance issues is not acceptable.”

HOSPITAL consultants are building up a war chest to mount a legal challenge against the Government if it introduces enterprise liability from next month.

DOCTORS should be paid on the basis of the number of patients they cure as opposed to the number on their books, according to BUPA Ireland managing director Martin O’Rourke.