Consultants vow ‘to walk off the job’ if sued

HOSPITAL consultants have warned they will “walk off the job” if any member is sued over the failure to resolve a row over who is liable for claims of past medical negligence.

The threat was issued at the consultants’ weekend AGM, increasing the pressure on the Government to swiftly resolve a dispute which has left 11 consultants uninsured against claims of past negligence.

President of the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association (IHCA) Dr Josh Keaveny said the “nuclear option” - emergency services only at all hospitals - had been discussed following the departure of Health Minister Mary Harney.

Delegates were not satisfied with her assurances that “no patient or family will be left without compensation... and no consultant will lose his house” following the refusal by insurers, the British-based Medical Defence Union (MDU), to cover a number of Irish subscribers.

They said consultants who had cover withdrawn were working under severe stress.

Of the 11 without cover, eight are obstetricians, the remainder surgeons. Three are in the private practice and two are retired. The MDU argues the cover it has refused relates to claims for which the Government’s State Claims Agency (SCA) has responsibility.

Following the closed session, IHCA enterprise liability negotiator, Michael O’Keefe, said the Minister needed to resolve the row quickly, otherwise, “we are on a collision course with her and the pace of that will be taken out of our hands”.

Dr Keaveny said they intended to write to Ms Harney requesting in writing within two months her guarantees that no consultant or patient was facing financial ruin. They were not prepared to enter negotiations on a new contract until then.

Yesterday a spokesperson for the minister said she would be writing to confirm the assurances she gave to consultants at the weekend and would be inviting them to further talks.

Delegate Chris Pidgeon, consultant neurologist at Beaumont Private Clinic, said: “I think as a group, we should make it very clear we are prepared to take drastic action. They day we go to court is the day consultants strike. My gut feeling is someone’s going to end up in court sooner rather than later.”

Mr O’Keefe said he believed the IHCA had “not arrived” at this point yet. He believed Mary Harney was “desperate”, that she had staked her political career on resolving the health service crisis through reform which could not take place without the consultants, who were ‘pivotal’ to the service.

“The minister is on a shorter timescale than we are and we think this will have an effect,” said IHCA secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick. The IHCA said consultants would not be “blackmailed” into negotiating a new contract, necessary for proposed reform, until the enterprise liability row was resolved.

Ms Harney has warned they must enter contract negotiations if they want the Government to address enterprise liability.