HOSPITAL consultants have accused Health Service Executive (HSE) employers of having “no real interest in health reform”.

Two medical organisations have withdrawn from talks due to take place today with health service bosses to negotiate a new contract for hospital consultants.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin has announced the new board of the Labour Relations Commission.

TALKS on a new hospital consultants’ contract broke down yesterday with consultant groups accusing the Health Service Executive of making work practice changes behind their backs.

A warning from a trade union over difficulties with the roll-out of 200,000 doctor-only medical cards was today branded extraordinary by health service employers.

Evelyn Ring

THE new EU working time directive for junior doctors will not be implemented in three weeks because of the “absolute intransigence” of the IMO, the Government chief whip Mary Hanafin claimed last night.

The Irish Medical Organisation and the Health Service Employers Agency have accepted LRC proposals aimed at resolving the nine-week old strike by public health doctors.

Talks between health service employers and striking public health doctors have broken up for the weekend without agreement.

Both sides in the public health doctors dispute are to attend talks at the Labour Relations Commission tomorrow.

HERE’S a piece of spin. It’s actually a piece of political guff, from a master of the genre. It mightn’t look like it on the surface, but it shows how devious and cunning its author is. And how much he deserves to be watched.

The health service employers agency has condemned the IMO’s decision not to attend Labour Court talks in the Junior Doctors' dispute on Thursday.

Unions representing nurses in accident and emergency departments are due to meet with hospital management today in an effort to avert industrial action in two weeks.

The Health Services Employers Agency has rejected claims by the Irish Medical Organisation that an agreement reached last year with doctors has not been implemented.