HSE contract talks show no progress

HOSPITAL consultants expressed disappointment at the lack of progress made in yesterday’s resumed negotiations with the Health Service Executive (HSE) on a new contract.

Talks between both groups broke down nine months ago following the HSE’s decision to stop filling vacant consultant posts that carried “off-site” private practice rights.

Consultants are to meet with the HSE again after the health authority agreed to suspend its decision to stop filling the “category 2” posts during the negotiations.

Secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) Finbarr Fitzpatrick described yesterday’s meeting with the HSE as “long and frustrating”.

Before the talks got under way, the head of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, said the executive was seeking a major commitment from consultants to public hospital work but that it would be flexible in terms of the options available to doctors.

The aim was that patients would have access, without long waiting times, to a service provided by a senior clinical decision maker.

At yesterday’s meeting both the IHCA and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) were each handed a new document outlining the new “public only” contracts for new consultant appointments.

Mr Fitzpatrick said they were given to believe from both Prof Drumm and the health minister Mary Harney that there would be a range of contracts available.