Public health doctors to discuss new industrial action date at end of January
Dr Ina Kelly, chair of the Irish Medical Organisation’s (IMO) Public Health and Community Health, said the Government was not showing respect to public health doctors. File picture
Public health doctors are to meet at the end of the month to discuss a new date for industrial action after strikes were postponed amid rising Covid-19 cases.
In a ballot in November, 94% of public health doctors voted in favour of strike action following a dispute with the Department of Health over a consultant level contract for professionals in the area.
The dispute between public health doctors and the Government centres around claims the Government has failed to employ public health doctors as consultants, something that is the case in many other countries.
This, according to the doctors, is making it increasingly difficult to recruit in the area.
Three days of strike action, due to take place on January 14, 20 and 21, were
postponed earlier this month due to a spike in Covid-19 cases across Ireland.
However, public health doctors are set to meet at the end of this month to discuss the potential for industrial action in the future, according to Dr Ina Kelly, chair of the Irish Medical Organisation’s (IMO) Public Health and Community Health.
“We are focusing now on protecting our most vulnerable in the large number of outbreaks we have,” she said.
“We are all back working longer hours and dealing with very intense public health risk situations.”
Dr Kelly said the situation in Ireland was currently far worse than during the first wave of Covid-19. She said they had "huge staffing challenges".
“It is to be hoped that the vaccination programme will help to stop spread in the next month or so.”
Dr Kelly urged people to continue adhering to infection prevention and control instructions.
“The massive increase in cases, the exponential rise, is what we in public health have been trying to prevent since early 2020,” she said.
“They seem to value it most of the time but don't value or respect the branch of medicine from which the expert advice comes, nor those trained in public health medicine.
“They are still not honouring commitments to strengthen public health medicine by treating it equally and developing consultant led multi-disciplinary teams like other branches of medicine.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health recently said, “It is recognised that the specialists have consultant status in other countries and that this has to be addressed to enhance the profession’s attractiveness in Ireland."
They added the health minister, the department and the HSE were committed to the early introduction of a new framework for public healthcare, which will involve the establishment of a consultant-led public health model.
The business case seeking consultant status was submitted to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on November 19 and is receiving consideration, according to the spokesperson.
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