HSE: D-day for contract talks

HOSPITAL consultants have been warned today is D-day for completion of talks on a new work contract.

If agreement is not reached today, health service managers have threatened to unilaterally impose a revised contract and press ahead with recruitment of new consultants under revised terms.

In an effort to bring the four-year-plus saga to a close, the secretary-general of the Department of Health Michael Scanlan, and Health Service Executive chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm, will sit in on negotiations for the first time.