Infection threat as doctors set to strike

A VOTE for all-out strike by public health doctors could leave the country exposed to outbreaks of infectious disease, including the new killer pneumonia virus.

More than 300 public health doctors yesterday voted unanimously to extend their ongoing work-to-rule into an all-out strike in April.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which represents the doctors, said the escalation is due to Government failure to financially recognise their specialist training or to pay them for out-of-hours cover in the control of infectious diseases.

IMO vice-president and chairman of the public health committee, Dr Joe Barry, said the Department of Health’s reluctance to recognise their claims, endorsed in an independent review was “reckless”.

“They have forced us into strike and it means there will be no cover in the event of the outbreak of infectious disease. In the past few days, in response to a special request from the Department, we agreed to develop guidelines to deal with the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) problem, but four days later we have not received payment. Neither were we paid for out-of-hours service during the anthrax scare. We are no longer prepared to work for nothing.”

He said the Government was hopelessly unprepared for the threat of biological warfare and that infection control was very much down the agenda.

A withdrawal of public health doctor manpower will mean no out-of-hours cover in the event of a meningitis outbreak, or an attack of the winter vomiting bug or food poisoning. Screening and vaccination programmes will also be hit, as well as preventative medicine strategies, for which public health doctors are primarily responsible.

Meanwhile, health employers have hit back at the doctors’ claims of underpay, describing their decision to strike as unwarranted.

Health Service Employers Agency (HSEA) industrial relations executive John Delamare called on the doctors to remain within the Labour Relations conciliation process. He said the doctors had already been awarded a 14.5% increase under benchmarking, and that the HSEA was willing to address any outstanding pay issues.

But the IMO said the Department had dragged its heels for too long.

“This decision was not taken lightly. In 1994 new public health structures were set up and should have been reviewed within two years. This process was delayed by the Department until April 2002. This delay and the continuing failure to implement the report’s recommendations is a blatant abuse of the goodwill shown by these doctors for so long,” Dr Barry said.

The IMO will defer activation of strike notice for a period of two weeks because of the Iraq war, but the current work-to-rule will continue.