Health experts pressed to make savings

Consultants are under even greater pressure to agree to cost-saving work practices, with the Government declaring consultants are some of the best paid people in the country and need to embrace changes.

Figures obtained by the Irish Examiner also reveal the perks enjoyed by the consultants, with 500 this year set to earn €200,000 or more each in overall pay from public practices alone.

Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin said he was disappointed that talks between health chiefs and consultants had broken down and that the Government would now have to go to the Labour Court.

Fianna Fáil laid blamed Health Minister James Reilly for the talks’ collapse and called for him to be sacked.

Six months of talks to deliver a promised saving of €200m in costs from consultants broke down on Thursday, with unions saying their members would not co-operate with work changes. Dr Reilly made a pledge to save as much last month after talks between both sides on flexible working time, cuts in overtime, and a reduction in premium payments for consultants.

The HSE said yesterday that it would attempt to implement consultant work changes early next month and would push for an urgent meeting of the Labour Court to resolve the issue.

Mr Howlin urged consultants to begin new practices immediately.

“I’m very disappointed,” he said. “It’s incumbent on everybody to embrace the change agenda ... and particularly those who are actually among the best paid in the country, to understand what needs to be done. We need the changed practices to have a much more efficient hospital service but we also need the money.”

Figures from sources in his department show that 55 consultant clinical directors will each get an allowance of €46,000 this year, while another 2,500 consultants are set to receive €3,000 each in allowances for continuing medical education.

Consultants on call-out also get payments of €85.42 for a call-out up to a maximum of €24,243 per year.

HSE director of human resources Barry O’Brien said consultant unions had agreed to work changes but then suddenly changed their mind on Thursday.

The Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association said it was surveying members on proposals, while the Irish Medical Organisation questioned if the HSE would be ready to implement work change plans by Nov 5.

Mr O’Brien said: “All we were looking for was absolute confirmation that they would commence, engage, and give full effect to the proposals. You can’t be in favour of something, recommend them to your members, and then tell the employer we’re having a survey.”

Fianna Fáil’s health spokesman Billy Kelleher last night accused Dr Reilly of “tip-toeing gingerly” around consultants. Mr Kelleher said Dr Reilly had mislead the public by hailing a breakthrough with talks with consultants last month.

He called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to sack Dr Reilly: “We have come to the point where consultants need to be told in no uncertain terms that either they voluntarily cut their pay, or a cut will be imposed.”

A spokesman for Dr Reilly said he would not comment during an industrial relations process.