Consultants to resist ‘doctor only’ contracts
Tánaiste Mary Harney has said she will push ahead with the new contract even if hasn't got the backing of other hospital consultants in the spring as she wants to ensure that public hospitals meet the needs of all patients and not just private patients.
But Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick said consultants would not let her "put a gun to their heads."
"We will resist any move to impose a new contract which has not been agreed.
"Hospital consultants will agree not to shortlist candidates for interviews and will also refuse to sit on interview boards. We won't have a contract rammed down our throats," he said.
According to the IHCA, the Department of Health invited them in August to talks which began in October.
Yet, after meetings in November and December, the employers still had not produced a draft contract. It is not due to be ready until the end of January.
"Public only contracts can't be pushed through like that as it's not workable to have two different doctors doing the same work but on different contracts. It should also be noted that there was a 'public only' contract in place until 1999 but the Department of Health did away with that," Mr Fitzpatrick said.
The IHCA also pointed out that half of the population have private health insurance and will seek private care. They said an increase in hospital bed capacity was the solution to better hospital access and not the consultant contract.
However, the Tánaiste believes that health insurance figures will drop if there is quicker access to services, following on from the adoption of 'public-only' contracts.
Last night, the Irish Patients' Association (IPA) said it backed the department's move towards 'public only' contracts because equality of access was a basic human right.
"Access to health should not be based on whether you have health insurance or not," IPA spokesman Stephen McMahon said.
"We would also urge psychiatrists to stop refusing to co-operate with the mental health tribunals as all psychiatric patients should have the right to be re-assessed by psychiatrists at these tribunals if they have been originally admitted to hospital involuntarily."
The IHCA has advised its members not to apply for such tribunal posts until they are granted the 1.5% pay increase they are due under the Sustaining Progress agreement.
Ms Harney has said that she wants to double the number of consultants in Irish hospitals but "the key to that is the new contract because they are not affordable at current contract prices and under current conditions".
"About 1,000 current consultants are over 55 and they will be replaced (over a 10-year period and we need a further 1,600 on top of that.
"So over the next decade in Ireland we will probably be employing over 2,500 (new) consultants," Ms Harney said.
