Proposals that will allow doctors reach the top of their pay scale faster than previously envisaged have been accepted by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) — ending its dispute with the Government and the HSE.

A "significant" number of hospital consultants are set to sue the State over millions of euro in unpaid salary rises they claim are owed to them since 2008.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has been urged to ensure health service cutbacks are halted, after a leading doctors’ group warned the "alarming" funding drain is putting patients’ lives at risk.

Longer nursing home waiting lists, emergency department closures, a cull of 75,000 medical cards, and cancer screening cancellations all form part of a savage €1bn health service cutback next year.

A 100-strong group of current and retired nurses will refuse to co-operate with any requests for an abortion in Irish hospitals.

A former president of the Medical Council who is now the clinical director of Wexford General Hospital has been found guilty of poor professional performance.

Nearly one fifth of consultant posts in the country’s hospitals are vacant or being covered by locums, temporary employees, or part-time staff.

More than 40 consultants have called for the long-delayed national children’s hospital — set to be based at St James’s — to be directly linked to a leading maternity site.

Consultants are under even greater pressure to agree to cost-saving work practices, with the Government declaring consultants are some of the best paid people in the country and need to embrace changes.

For some the Croke Park deal epitomises all that is wrong in this country.

Health Minister James Reilly has said the Government will push ahead with its decision to cut the pay of all new consultants by 30%.

The chair of the HSE West Forum has described as “absolutely outrageous” the failure of one consultant to sign forms that would release €500,000 to the cash-strapped HSE.

Consultants will be named and shamed for failing to sign off on treatment forms that are delaying €60m in reimbursed payments from health insurance companies.

THE Public Accounts Committee has said if its powers are not beefed up it will become the watchdog that cannot bite as it tries to police those who waste taxpayers’ money.

PATIENT representatives have called on the chairman of Tallaght Hospital to resign and its chief executive to step aside.

CONSULTANTS insisted yesterday that they have already taken a salary cut of 15% and will not accept any further reduction until the rest of the public sector catches up with them.

THOUSANDS of junior doctors are seeking a 25%-40% pay rise on their basic salary in a case likely to be heard by the Labour court expected before the end of the year.

ROUND-the-clock emergency care will cease at Monaghan General Hospital (MGH) on July 22 and patients with an acute illness or in need of acute surgery will have to travel elsewhere.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney said the €140 million for pay increases under the new consultants’ contract next year would not be released until there was real change in the way patient services were delivered.

IT SEEMS that a return to bigger class sizes may not be the only instance where we may have to be prepared to walk over familiar ground.

HEALTH services are to revert to local control in the next 18 months under a massive restructuring of the Health Service Executive.

UP to 120 hospital consultant posts are being advertised by the Health Service Executive (HSE) as part of its continued efforts to increase the numbers of consultants working in the public service.

A DOCTOR in north Cork said he cannot guarantee the safety of his patients because of a lack of investment in Mallow General Hospital.

THE Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association (IHCA) has described as “utterly bizarre” the failure by the author of a report into the Midlands’ Breast Care Crisis to interview the consultant at the centre of the affair.

LIKELY agreement on a new consultants’ contract after almost five years of talks is a tribute to the painstaking negotiating skills of independent chairman and barrister Mark Connaughton, who is tipped to be a judge soon.

MARATHON talks on a new hospital consultants’ contract failed to reach full agreement on providing more part-time positions to encourage senior women doctors with young children to continue working.

Minister for Health Mary Harney has tonight hailed the agreement of a new deal with hospital consultants.

A SECOND round of renewed efforts between medics and health bosses to reach an agreement on new consultants’ contracts was under way last night.

HOSPITAL consultants have been warned today is D-day for completion of talks on a new work contract.

THE Government has been forced to lift its threat to end contract talks with hospital consultants by Christmas and the deadline has been pushed back to January.

TWO consultant obstetricians have won a High Court order overturning as “unlawful” findings of professional misconduct against them by the Medical Council over their 1998 reports about the obstetric practice of Dr Michael Neary at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

THOUGH the days leading up to Christmas can be a time of great pressure and some considerable frustration for parents, the vast majority of people consider parenthood a wondrous privilege and one of the — if not THE — defining factors of their lives.

THE State’s health service budget overrun could reach half a billion euro by the year end, hospital consultants warned yesterday.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney said yesterday the essence of a new hospital consultants’ contract was now agreed.

HOSPITAL consultants are this week to re-open talks with Health Minister Mary Harney over her proposals to get more specialists to devote greater time to the public health service.

PETER MOLLOY (Irish Examiner letters, April 25) inaccurately claims that Irish hospital consultants are paid more than their UK counterparts.

ONE of the hospital consultant organisations involved in the collapsed talks on new contracts has called for decisive action to avoid an irreparably damaging dispute.

THE Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) will ask members to boycott new consultant posts — due to be advertised next week — unless agreement is reached on a new work contract.

HOSPITAL consultants are set to reject an improved annual salary of €205,000 to work exclusively in the public system under a revised contract.

HOSPITAL consultants have rejected the Government’s three-week extension to conclude talks on a revised work contract as a “totally unrealistic timeframe”.

FAILURE to reach agreement on a new hospital consultants contract has forced the Government to extend the talks deadline by another three weeks.

REACHING agreement on new contracts for hospital consultants by the Government’s deadline of next Tuesday will be impossible, a doctor’s group warned yesterday.

A LEGAL challenge by two doctors found guilty of professional misconduct will be met head-on by the Medical Council.