IHCA will not gain from pay talks unless they change their position, Reilly says

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) will have to change its position if its members are to gain from the outcome of current talks on specialist pay, Minister for Health James Reilly has warned.

The talks between health service management and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) are expected to conclude this month with an offer to reinstate some of the 30 per cent reduction applied to new consultant posts in 2012. However, the IHCA, which is not part of the Haddington Road Agreement, has been left out of the talks.

Asked yesterday whether any pay deal would apply also to IHCA members, Dr Reilly said certain “conditions” would have to be met first. “The IHCA has declined to sign up to Haddington Road and have said they don’t do collective bargaining and it’s up to each member, so frankly unless they have some reorganisation of their position . . . There doesn’t seem to be a huge level of dynamism there.”

Dr Reilly, who was speaking at the launch of a report about medical training, said the option was still there for the association to get involved.

A report published this year found that cuts to the pay of newly appointed hospital consultants and lack of recognition in pay scales of previously obtained experience were hampering attempts to recruit and retain senior doctors in the health service. It urged the Government to look again at pay levels for newly appointed hospital consultants.

Dr Reilly said there were “huge savings” to be made in the private health sector through better auditing of the fees by the VHI to consultants for tests carried out. He acknowledged OECD figures showed that Irish health professionals and, in particular, consultants, were relatively well paid by international standards. “I don’t have any issue with our consultant cadre being well paid; they have a very difficult job, they spend a long time in training and they have huge responsibilities. But I do believe we have an issue in the private health sector that needs to be addressed by VHI in relation to the fees they pay and the auditing of tests being done.”

Department of Health officials, HSE officials and IMO representatives have met during the past month and a final meeting is planned towards the end of the month. Dr Reilly said the talks were going well.

Asked about a suggestion that newly qualified medical graduates should be required to work in Ireland for a number of years, he said this represented a “stick approach” which didn’t tend to work well.

The Minister parried questions about the impending Cabinet reshuffle, saying these were decisions for the Taoiseach and he would respect whatever was decided.