Hospital action may escalate, say doctors

JUNIOR doctors at one of the south east's busiest hospitals will begin a work-to-rule from tomorrow evening.

The action, which will hit the anaesthetics and paediatric departments of Waterford Regional Hospital from 5pm tomorrow may escalate to further departments unless the dispute is resolved.

None of the junior doctors attached to either department will provide on-call services after 5pm and until 9am daily.

The Irish Medical Organisation said it will not stand idly by at the hospital and watch junior doctors being rostered, as is proposed by hospital management. A similar dispute in Tralee has been resolved following the brokering of an agreement with hospital management.

Day-long talks yesterday between the IMO, the South Eastern Health Board and Waterford Regional Hospital proved fruitless.

IMO industrial relations officer, Paul Connolly, said nobody wanted to get involved in such action but the organisation had been pushed into a corner.

The 20 junior doctors in the two affected departments will present themselves for work during normal office hours but will not provide on-call services after that.

The IMO and the junior doctors believe that they learn most during the day and cannot be rostered as staff after that because they do not have the necessary experience or qualifications.

The IMO believes the move will put extra pressure on consultants and could mean that they have to work longer hours as long as the dispute continues. If the matter is not resolved by Monday morning, the IMO plans to extend the ban on on-call duties to other departments.

“This work-to-rule will escalate and it will move into other departments on a phased basis if the matter is not resolved. The organisation regrets that it has been pushed into this action, something which we believe is totally unnecessary,” Mr Connolly said.

Meanwhile, a dispute which threatened to cause similar disruption in Tralee has been averted. Management there has promised to reinstate old rostering arrangements and on-call hours have been reduced, in consultation with junior doctors.

The South Eastern Health Board said an agreement was reached in 2002 between the Health Service Employers Agency and the Irish Medical Organisation, part of which was to reduce the hours worked by junior doctors and to move towards meeting the EU directive which stipulates that by 2004, the average hours worked by non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) will be 58 hours per week.

“The SEHB wishes to state that the re-arranging of rosters and recruitment of additional staff were to meet this directive laid down in the NCHD agreement. However the SEHB is advised the IMO have difficulties with this and hopes this matter can be resolved,” the board said in a statement.