Contract talks stalled as HSE and consultants row continues

HOSPITAL consultants have accused Health Service Executive (HSE) employers of having “no real interest in health reform”.

As a war of words continued over the failed resumption of negotiations on a new contract for consultants, the HSE Employers Agency (HSE-EA) accused the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) of adopting an “absolutist position” by refusing to rejoin the talks.

The talks broke down in early February after the IHCA learned that the HSE had made a decision in January to stop offering category two contracts, which allow public hospital consultants to practice in off-site private hospitals.

The IHCA described the move as a breach of Section 21.12 of the Sustaining Progress agreement, as work practices were changed without consultation.

“In an attempt to get over the outstanding issues that led to the talks breaking down, we intimated to the talks’ independent chairman that as a goodwill gesture, we would resume making category two appointments for the duration of the talks. But this wasn’t good enough,” said HSE-EA chief executive Gerard Barry.

In response to the HSE-EA’s proposal, Donal Duffy, assistant secretary general of the IHCA said: “We wanted this breach undone before we went back to talks and we have always made this position clear. Saying that some category two contracts would be given out is not sufficient grounds to re-enter the talks.”

Mr Duff said the employers are endeavouring to ensure that a new contract isn’t formulated.

“We have been available for seven years for these talks and then when talks began in November, the health service management didn’t have a serious proposal document and a number of meetings were postponed in early January, as they didn’t have a document.

“What they gave us in late January was no more than a press release with a list of headings,” he said.

Mr Duff said it was made clear to the Tánaiste that they wanted this breach resolved, before the resumption of talks “and if that’s an ‘absolutist position’ well then it is”.

He said five years after the health strategy, there is an absence of “real commitment to reform”.

In a statement yesterday, the HSE said that category two posts “fly in the face of the HSE’s stated commitment to reform hospitals and to ensure a greater input and leadership from consultants within our public hospitals” and were “illogical and militate against improving our hospitals”.

The HSE criticised the medical organisations for refusing to have any new contract priced by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration, the body that sets pay levels for senior public servants, including hospital consultants.

It also highlighted the contentious issue of payment for public hospital consultants treating patients in A&E departments in private hospitals.

A HSE spokesman asked the IHCA and the IMO to reconsider their position and enter meaningful talks.