Harney’s consultant post figures fall short by 435

THERE have been 535 applications for the 68 new hospital consultant positions advertised on terms not agreed with the consultant representative bodies, five times that estimated by the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, earlier this week.

The new figure, confirmed yesterday by a Department of Health spokesperson, is the number of applications received to date by the Public Appointments Commission.

The €205,000-plus posts were advertised by the Health Service Executive (HSE) in April and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) urged doctors not to apply for them.

Ms Harney admitted yesterday that she was incorrect when she stated on Tuesday that more than 100 applications had been received.

The Health Service Executive has not put a closing date for receipt of applications for the new consultant positions.

Ms Harney pointed out that applications received to date had come from Ireland and overseas.

The consultants pulled out of talks with the HSE on a new consultant’s contract after the jobs were advertised and began a limited form of industrial action that involved boycotting some administrative duties and meetings with the health authority.

Last weekend, the consultants decided to suspend their action in order to create a more constructive atmosphere for its meeting today with the minister.

On Tuesday the IMO met Ms Harney for about an hour to discuss ways of getting contract talks restarted. The organisation described the meeting as constructive.

Ms Harney said she was hopeful that the row over a new consultants contract could be resolved.

The IMO will brief its consultant committee today.

Meanwhile, the minister admitted at a conference hosted by St Vincent’s Psychiatric Hospital in Dublin to mark its 150th anniversary that slow progress had been made in implementing the Government’s 10-year policy on mental health, Vision for Change.

“I want to make sure now that we put the foot on the accelerator and that we meet the timeframe that has been laid down in the Vision for Change to move away from the stand-alone, old-fashioned psychiatric hospital model to the new model of care which I think everyone has embraced,” she said.