Consultants shun new State Claims Agency

HOSPITAL consultants are refusing to cooperate with a new Government agency dealing with compensation claims.

The public consultants won’t sign up to the State Claims Agency to deal with claims made by patients in public hospitals, as this would result in insurance for private consultants becoming more expensive.

Last night, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern reiterated that the Government was going to take on the consultants, stating that the renegotiation of their contracts was central to the new health reform package.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that the consultants are the only group in the public sector not signed up to the agency, which is supposed to be a one-stop shop for handling compensation claims against Government departments and bodies.

The agency employs litigation lawyers and claims experts, and will either settle if necessary or fight claims in court. By having just one legal team involved, the agency cuts down substantially on legal fees, which account for up to 40% of the costs of cases.

The taxpayer pays up to 90% of a public hospital consultant’s costly insurance premiums, and the remainder is supposed to be covered by specialists themselves, to acknowledge their private work.

Under the new scheme, all the risk for public consultants would be covered by the State, with the effect that they would no longer take out insurance.

The State Claims Agency is an arm of the National Treasury Management Agency, and yesterday at a meeting of a taxpayers’ watchdog committee, NTMA chief executive Dr Michael Somers said the consultants were concerned about their reputations if cases were settled.

General secretary of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said if public consultants were no longer paying insurance then premiums for private consultants would be doubled.

Public hospital consultants earn over €150,000 a year, paid by the taxpayer, and are also allowed to earn vast sums in private practice.

Their contracts allow them to delegate care of public patients to junior doctors, who subsequently end up working substantial hours of overtime.

But the Brennan Commission on financial management in the health service recommended that new consultant appointments should be made on the basis of working exclusively in the public sector.