Consultants’ recruitment ads to begin next week

THE first specialities to benefit from consultants appointed under a new work contract will be those with long patient waiting lists, Health Minister Mary Harney said yesterday.

Ms Harney said rheumatology, neurology, respiratory medicine and psychiatry would be given priority in her plan to recruit 350 new consultants.

Speaking at the Irish Medical Organisation’s (IMO) AGM in Killarney yesterday, Ms Harney said she intended to press ahead with the new consultant contract and would begin advertising new posts from next Thursday.

She has set a deadline of next Tuesday for completion of contract talks, despite the fact that neither the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) nor the IMO has accepted the new contract terms.

“I think we can’t wait forever. We have waited a long, long time. My patience has run out. It is not incompatible with getting an agreement with consultants that we move ahead with recruitment so patients don’t have to wait for a year to get an outpatient’s appointment with a rheumatologist or neurologist,” she said.

“The public interest is entitled to expect me as Minister for Health and the Health Service Executive to move on with the recruitment process.”

Ms Harney said the first adverts would be placed on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and would not be replacements for existing posts.

Responding to threats from the IHCA and the IMO to boycott the new posts until a new contract is agreed, Ms Harney said: “I don’t think advocacy on the behalf of patients would be served by blocking recruitment. How can you explain to patients in the west of Ireland that the Government is about to appoint a rheumatologist, where people are waiting a year or two years, that the existing cohort of doctors won’t agree?”

Ms Harney said a situation could not be allowed to develop where “existing incumbents have a veto on anyone new coming in”.

She said she would ask the HSE to “be innovative” in the manner new consultants are appointed if existing consultants continue to veto her recruitment plan.

“In many other countries once you do your training you can have a consultant’s post; you don’t have to wait for it to be advertised.

“If people are experienced from working in other countries and have good references, whether they need to put them through the kind of process we do here will need to be examined.”