Hospital consultants quit talks on new contracts

TALKS between hospital consultants and employers to agree a new work contract collapsed last night, on the eve of the Government deadline to complete negotiations.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said it had been left with “no option but to step back from the talks process” due to conclude today.

The decision to withdraw is on foot of Health Minister Mary Harney’s decision to press ahead with the recruitment this week of 50 consultants under the proposed contract terms, which are still being negotiated.

A statement from the IHCA last night said: “That decision breaks the chairman’s (Mark Connaughton, SC) terms for resumption of the talks last October that all parties would refrain from taking any action outside the terms of the current consultants’ contract.

“Consequently the IHCA has been left with no option but to step back from the talks process. We will brief our members at an EGM next Sunday. We have advised the HSE that we are available to receive any fresh proposals that they may have before Sunday.”

Finbarr Fitzpatrick, IHCA general secretary, said the only way they would return to the talks was if new consultants are recruited under the existing contract.

However last night Ms Harney said this would not happen. She said appointments to the new posts would be made on the basis of a new contract and that “it is still possible for that contract to be an agreed one”.

She said existing contract holders would not be affected by the recruitment process and that any changes in their existing contracts would require agreement.

Ms Harney said while she was disappointed with the consultants’ decision to disengage, the public interest required that the hiring process begin immediately. “It can often take significant time to hire consultants. It cannot be in patients’ interests to delay the start of that process any longer,” she said.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which counts junior doctors in its membership, is advising members not to apply for the new consultant posts. The IHCA has said it will boycott the recruitment process by not cooperating with short listing procedures or participating in interview panels for the new posts. It will hold a press conference today in relation to the contract negotiations.

A statement issued by the Health Service Executive (HSE) following the talks’ breakdown last night said the consultants’ withdrawal was “premature” given agreement had been reached “on a considerable number of complex issues”.

The statement said: “The HSE believes that negotiations should continue in parallel with the current recruitment campaign. Any final agreement could inform the contracts to be offered to newly-recruited consultants.”

The IHCA has written to all hospital network managers and hospital chief executives stating the cooperation of consultants on a range of administrative and managerial duties may be withdrawn from April 22 if they attempt to recruit these new consultants.