Government faces EU fines if health plan ignored

THE Government has been warned it could face hefty fines from the EU if it fails to implement the controversial recommendations of the Hanly report to reform the health services.

“We do not have an option to do nothing,” David Hanly, the author of the report, said in a stark warning yesterday. Addressing a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, Mr Hanly and other members of his task force said the EU could impose substantial fines on a daily basis if the Government failed to cut the number of hours worked by junior doctors over the next year.

Mr Hanly said the basis for healthcare reform was the obligation on the Government to comply with the EU Working Time Directive, which means junior doctors will be permitted to work a maximum of 58 hours per week from August 2004 and 48 hours from 2009. They currently work an average of 75 hours per week.

Among the main recommendations is the proposal to increase the number of consultants from 1,700 to 3,600 over the next decade, with a corresponding phased reduction in the number of junior doctors.

Asked about possible financial constraints on implementing this measure, Mr Hanly said the gap between the average salaries of consultants and junior doctors was smaller than most people believed. He pointed out that consultants earned around 150,000 per annum while junior doctors earned 110,000 on average, largely as a result of overtime.

Mr Hanly also rejected any suggestion that implementation of the report would result in a downgrading of local hospitals. He claimed the recommendation, if fully implemented, would lead to an increase in services provided by such hospitals.

The report has created growing concerns that it will lead to a downgrading of hospitals in Louglinstown, Dun Laoghaire, Ennis and Nenagh. “Far from being downgraded, as some people have been saying, we propose that each local hospital should have an enhanced range of specialist services and should be an important part of the integrated regional service,” said Mr Hanly. Colleague Dr Cillian Twomey added: “Local hospitals will increase in importance and become more viable institutions.”

However, Senator Frank Feighan (FG) said the report wanted to “replace a modern and efficient hospital with an ambulance”. In response, Dr Twomey said treatment by ambulance staff was a more critical issue than the distance a patient was from a hospital.