Hospital threatens to withhold overtime

A Cork hospital where overtime payments to junior doctors are in the order of €1m a month has warned it will not pay unrostered overtime unless specific details of extra hours worked are outlined.

A row over the number of forms that have to be filled when claiming for unrostered overtime at Cork University Hospital has threatened to lead to a strike — although yesterday, its clinical director said it is in the process of being sorted out.

Richard Greene said he believed progress was being made in resolving the row, which arose when junior doctors were told they could no longer include payment claims for unrostered overtime in their timesheets. Instead they would have to fill out the unrostered overtime details on a separate form.