Consultants ready for boycott

Hospital consultants are staging the first day of an industrial dispute over new contracts today.

The senior doctors will boycott meetings with health service employers and officials in a disagreement over the Government’s plan to appoint new consultants.

During the campaign of action, members of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) will also stop providing cover for colleagues on leave, except in emergencies, and step down from some hospital and national committees.

More than 1,000 consultants voted in favour of the strike action, which will be confined to public hospitals.

The IHCA said the campaign will not affect patient care, with consultants meeting their normal clinical commitments.

However, The Health Service Executive (HSE) said the withdrawal from day-to-day management of hospitals and cooperation with the management will have some impact on patient services.

The action is in response to a decision by Minister for Health Mary Harney and the HSE to advertise for 68 new consultancy posts on terms which have not been agreed by the association.

Meanwhile, the Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses’ Association (PNA) are to ballot their 45,000 members on whether to continue with an eight-week nationwide work-to-rule after the Government’s chief industrial relations trouble-shooters proposed reducing the working week to 37.5 hours by June next year.

They were seeking a 10.6% pay rise and a 35-hour working week.