Junior doctors vote for strike action if talks fail

JUNIOR doctors yesterday voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action if talks to resolve their dispute with employers fail at the Labour Relations Commission.

The Irish Medical Organisation last night revealed the results of a strike ballot in which 97% of the union’s 2,600 members voted in favour of strike action as a last resort.

IMO director of industrial relations Fintan Hourihan said junior doctors demanded “a seachange in the attitude of health service managers and a move away from the cutbacks agenda.”

Mr Hourihan said there had to be a move towards “optimising and enhancing patient care and ensuring that doctors receive the highest standards of training and are available to treat patients during the busiest times of the day.”

Junior doctors, who staged industrial action in recent weeks at Waterford and Tullamore hospitals, said no further disruption would occur while the LRC talks were continuing.

Central to the doctors’ demands are planned changes to rosters which they want reversed. Although working hours will be reduced under a planned new system, doctors argue training and, ultimately, patient care will be affected.

The employers, meanwhile are arguing that they must, by law, reduce the doctors’ hours. The first in a series of LRC meetings with doctors’ representatives and health service managers opened yesterday, while the Health Service Employers Agency and the IMO have a September 16 deadline to resolve the dispute.

The industrial action in Waterford and Tullamore had led to hundreds of non-emergency operations and thousands of out-patient appointments being deferred. But that action was suspended pending the outcome of the talks.

The new roster arrangements were originally due to commence on July 1 last in what the health boards said was a move designed to cut the overall number of hours worked by junior doctors in accordance with the EU Working Time Directives.

But doctors warned the reduction in their working day would affect training and ultimately impact on patient care. They also contended that the changed roster system would make weekend and night work part of a junior doctor’s normal shift.

They also argued that the rosters removed overtime payments for such shifts and restricted the time junior doctors had for training with consultants.