Consultants tell Harney to end war of words

HOSPITAL consultants have called on Health Minister Mary Harney to quit what they termed the phoney war of words over health service reforms.

Ms Harney has given a two-month ultimatum to the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) to sort out a long-running dispute over proposed new contracts to employ public service-only consultants. She said she wanted to end the deadlock and issue employment contracts in early spring.

But the IMO, which represents 725 consultants and 3,000 hospital doctors, has called for extra consultants and additional acute medical beds before it signs up to any deal.

It also said it was still awaiting a position paper from the Health Service Executive, believed to be due at the end of January.

“Perhaps the Tánaiste and her officials would have been better served by spending their time speeding up the preparation of this necessary document rather than drafting unhelpful and antagonistic statements,” said IMO consultant committee chairman Sean Tierney.

The IMO said contract talks were only part of the overhaul of the health services.

“The IMO is also anxious to see a significant increase in acute hospital beds, especially as the per capita number of acute hospital beds has actually fallen since the Health Strategy was published in 2001,” said Mr Tierney.

“We also seek significant numbers of extra consultants to cope with both our increasing population and increasing numbers of older patients as well as the distribution of long-promised medical cards. The IMO is committed to engaging in real and meaningful discussions on these issues.

The minister has said that if the 1,800 hospital consultants, who have a mix of public and private practice, do not agree to a new contract, she will introduce fundamental changes in the system. In the absence of agreement, she plans to create a new type of consultant to deal solely with public patients.

The existing contract was negotiated in 1979 and it has been a source of contention since because of the wide freedom it allows publicly paid consultants to engage in private practice.

Both sides have adopted entrenched positions for the latest talks, which are due to begin on January 26. The Government side agreed its strategy at a meeting last Friday and Ms Harney said at the weekend that she was not prepared to countenance further delays.

“I want to see a situation where patients are admitted to hospital on the grounds of medical need and there is no question of a decision being made on the basis that somebody pays a fee and somebody else doesn’t.

“We cannot have in our public hospital system a situation where anybody in that hospital gets a fee for some patients but doesn’t get a fee for another. That does not lead to equity and that is part of the problem in our public healthcare system at the moment,” Ms Harney said.

She said Ireland had the best-paid consultants in the world, according to OECD figures.