HSE warns consultants they risk pay cuts

The HSE has warned hospital consultants they risk being exposed to pay cuts if they do not attend a Labour Court hearing on Thursday.

In a statement last night, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association said it would not attend the hearing, which is looking to resolve outstanding issues from a reform package negotiated last month.

IHCA secretary general Martin Varley said none of the proposed changes referred to the Labour Court on Thursday were within the scope of the specific health sector measures included in the Croke Park agreement.

Mr Varley said there was “no basis for these matters to be investigated by the Labour Court” and, as a result, the union would not be attending. He said consultants had delivered significant savings and had been implementing reforms.

HSE human resources director Barry O’Brien hit out at the IHCA decision and said it could be interpreted as meaning the union and its members were walking away from the Croke Park deal. As a result, he said, its members were at risk of losing protection from pay cuts under the deal.

Meanwhile, the HSE has confirmed that up to 500 medical consultants could be receiving over €200,000 per annum in salaries. The salaries would cost the taxpayer €100m each year.

The HSE confirmed that the 2,571 consultants working for the public health service will receive €476m this year in salaries, or an average of €185,158.

The figures — supplied to Labour TD Tommy Broughan in a briefing note from the HSE’s national director for finance, Liam Woods — state that there are 104 different salary rates for consultants, admitting “there is significant complexity in consultant salary rates”.

The monies do not include what consultants earn from their private work.

Mr Broughan said the €476m to be paid to consultants this year “is a huge chunk of the Irish health budget”.

“The public is looking at value for money in what consultants are being paid, but we don’t know how they work,” he said.

The HSE’s briefing note states that a number of cohorts of consultants earn over €200,000 and estimated up to 500 could be in this position, including 143 academic consultants.

An additional payment to the academics of €60,000 per annum costs the taxpayer an extra €8.5m per year.

The figures show 55 clinical directors each earn an additional €43,000 a year, costing the State €2.5m.

Some 2,571 consultants receive a €3,000 “continuing medical education allowance” that costs the taxpayer €7.7m each year. Some 1,500 consultants receive an annual €15,000 payment for being on-call. This costs the HSE €18m annually.

There are 2,164 consultants on contracts agreed in 2008, 401 consultants on contracts agreed in 1997, and six are on 1991 contracts.

The HSE response to Mr Broughan says the standardisation of rates and associated reduction of administrative costs is a key goal in terms of any changes to existing contracts.