Doctors in strike threat over Martin SARS attack

THE country is facing widespread chaos as hundreds of GPs and junior hospital doctors threatened to strike after Micheál Martin accused striking public health doctors of jeopardising lives.

Speaking at the Irish Medical Organisation’s (IMO) conference in Kerry yesterday, the Minister for Health enraged delegates when he reprimanded senior staff “in positions of leadership and authority as directors of public health or of specialist agencies” for “total abandonment of responsibility”, in dealing with the SARS virus.

The IMO said his remarks were a direct attack on the eight directors of public health and the head of the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC).