Strike looms as hospital row talks collapse
Last night, the Irish Hospital Consultant’s Association (IHCA) warned of the weekly cancellation of up to 3,500 scheduled operations. Day cases - approximately 7,000 a week - will also be hit if industrial action threatened by the consultants goes ahead.
IHCA secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick said the lack of progress at yesterday’s meeting between the Attorney General, the Chief State Solicitor’s Office, Department of Health officials and the IHCA’s legal representatives meant it was “becoming harder to pull back” from strike action.
Consultant members of the Irish Medical Organisation have already balloted in favour of strike action, to commence on March 14. The IHCA will ballot its members next Tuesday.
Mr Fitzpatrick said they expected members to endorse strike action. The two unions have already begun the process of setting up a joint strike committee and formal discussions on the industrial action will take place on Thursday, February 24.
The IHCA is due to meet with Department of Health legal representatives again next Wednesday, but Mr Fitzpatrick said they are “very pessimistic about the likelihood of a solution”.
He said the unions were meeting with the Health Service Employers Agency (HSEA) on Thursday 24 “to discuss the wind down of services and to give them formal strike notice on the assumption that it is going to go ahead”.
In the event of strike action, consultants will continue to tend to:
* Emergencies and urgent cases.
* Ongoing treatment such as chemotherapy and dialysis.
* Patients undergoing ongoing psychiatric treatment.
Mr Fitzpatrick said a meeting of the IHCA’s national council will take place on Saturday 26, and industrial action “will begin to roll from there.”
He said verbal assurances from Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney that no patient or consultant would be personally exposed as a result of the insurance row “would not stand the test of time.” The consultants are seeking a legal guarantee before calling off strike action.
A spokesperson for Ms Harney last night played down the meeting’s lack of progress.
“As far as we are concerned, this meeting was between lawyers, and by agreement they will go back to the IHCA’s subcommittee meeting on Saturday and we will meet again with them next week to get feedback from the subcommittee,” the spokesperson said.
