National strike by junior doctors fear

FEARS were growing last night that junior hospital doctors may take strike action across the country over changed working arrangements which must be introduced this month under an EU directive.

Non-consultant doctors (NCHDs) in Tralee General Hospital yesterday voted for action by 39 votes to 37 while a similar decision was taken at Waterford Regional Hospital.

IMO representative in Tralee, Dr Neville Shine claimed changes in their working terms would affect their training and continuity of patient care as there would be fewer doctors around during peak working hours.

He claimed the hospital management unilaterally enforced changes before such issues had been resolved in on-going discussions at national level.

“We want the status quo to be maintained until a decision is made at national level on how to go forward,” Dr Shine said.

He argued that under the new working arrangements, junior doctors would miss out on premium training time when the hospital was busiest between the hours of 9am and 5pm.

Southern Health Board programme manager Pat Madden said strike action would be completely unnecessary.

Arguing that such doctors had been seeking a shorter working week for many years, he said the arrangements had cut their working week by four hours and three extra NCHDs had been appointed in Tralee.

“Training needs and patient care will be protected,” Mr Madden said.

There is an obligation nationally on all hospitals to reduce the NCHDs’ working hours, and a weekly half-day of four hours has been introduced since July 1 in the departments of surgery and medicine in Tralee.

Also, an additional registrar in surgery and two senior house officers in medicine had been recruited to ensure the level of service would be maintained, according to the SHB.

Tralee General Hospital general manager Margie Lynch said this was neither a budgetary exercise nor a cost saving measure, and savings made from the reduction in hours enabled the hospital to recruit additional NCHDs.

She also said training for NCHDs would not be affected as they would be assigned sufficient time to attend both clinical and training sessions.

Ms Lynch said discussions would continue on an ongoing basis regarding the way reductions are to be introduced into the different specialities.

Rejecting suggestions Tralee General Hospital was being downgraded, she said: “Plans to upgrade, improve existing services and develop new services are continuous at Tralee General

Hospital. Its budget is increasing annually in line with increased service provision.”