Harney faces staff revolt as health crisis mounts
In an another major setback, British insurance company, the Medical Defence Union (MDU), broke off talks with the minister’s department in a long and bitter dispute over medical insurance cover.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which represents 680 consultants, voted 8 to 1 for industrial action over the insurance row yesterday.
It is widely expected the 1,500-member Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) will follow suit at their emergency general meeting tomorrow.
Following an IMO and IHCA meeting, the consultants said they would follow a joint strategy with the IHCA, with scheduled surgery and outpatient clinics likely to be cancelled.
Under the plan, hospital consultants will continue to carry out emergency work and continuing care such as kidney dialysis, chemotherapy and psychiatric treatments.
The medical malpractice insurance row centres around a refusal by the MDU to cover alleged malpractice cases which occurred before the State introduced its own insurance scheme last February. These cases could cost up to €400 million in insurance payouts and the MDU believe they should be covered by the department.
The MDU yesterday confirmed they were withdrawing from talks because of comments made by Ms Harney at a Dáil committee meeting and in a newspaper article yesterday.
“We now feel that the department does not intend to reach any solution with the MDU and that further negotiations are futile,” said MDU professional services director, Dr Christine Tomkins.
IHCA secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick yesterday said the Tánaiste’s options were looking increasingly limited if she wanted to avert strike action.
“The ball is in her court. As the MDU won’t talk with the department any more, we feel that the only option left to the Tánaiste is to join us in suing the MDU but we will also need a legally binding guarantee of cover for the consultants who are being left without protection.”
In a separate development, SIPTU nurses are threatening to take industrial action unless Ms Harney resolves the overcrowding crisis at A&Es.
The Irish Nursing Organisation also sent a letter to Ms Harney yesterday outlining their plans to hold a lunchtime protest outside hospitals unless they are given a timeframe for her 10-point A&E plan and assurances on new hospital beds and nursing shortages.
A series of lunchtime protests have already been planned outside the country’s A&Es by the INO for later this month.
INO accident and emergency nurses have said they are “battled and bewildered” by their working conditions and described A&Es as “a catalogue of human misery” which they can no longer tolerate.
Patients Together spokeswoman Janette Byrne said their organisation supported the nurses’ and doctors’ actions.
“I hope they are willing to really put it on the line as we feel that patients and staff have run out of options. We are delighted that the tide is turning and people are trying for change.”
Ms Byrne attacked Ms Harney for being “all talk and no action”.
Ms Harney last night reconfirmed her commitment to resolving the consultant malpractice cover row.
“The outcome of the consultant ballot is a great disappointment which will only cause suffering for patients,” she said.
“I re-iterate my commitment that no doctor will be left without cover and that no patient will be left without compensation for medical mishaps,” she said.
