Delay in contract proposals criticised

Hospital consultants: The Government will not table its long-awaited proposals for reform of the common contract for hospital consultants for another month, it has emerged.

The delay was signalled by health service management at the second round of talks on the review of the contract, which took place last week.

Medical sources said they had been informed by health service management that its proposals for the new contract had yet to receive final agreement from the Health Service Executive (HSE) and political approval from the Department of Health.

In the absence of a Government position paper until late next month, further rounds of talks scheduled for December 15th and January 12th have been cancelled.

The delay by management in tabling its proposals has been criticised by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) which yesterday sent a letter voicing its dismay to Minister for Health Mary Harney.

The letter maintained that the Tánaiste invited the consultant representative bodies to take part in talks on a revised contract at the beginning of August and that nearly six months will have elapsed before the Government finally puts its proposals on the table at the end of January.

The IHCA said that senior Government figures, including the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, had, on several occasions, referred to the urgent need for reform of the contract.

The association said Minister for Finance Brian Cowen had specifically pointed to consultants for holding up change.

However, it said that there appeared to be little urgency on the part of health service management to put its proposals on the table.

The Government is expected to seek major reform of consultants' private practice arrangements and to look for a greater availability of senior doctors in hospitals outside of normal working hours as part of the new contract. The Government sees the introduction of change to the consultant contract as a vital part of its overall health service reforms.

Sources said the second round of talks last week between health service management and the IHCA and the Irish Medical Organisation on the new contract were not as acrimonious as at the opening session of negotiations the previous week.

However, there is still deadlock between the parties on how the issue of payment to hospital consultants for changes to their contract should be determined.

The HSE and the Department of Health have sought to have the issue of payment for any contractual change referred to the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Service - the advisory body for top-level pay in the public sector.

However, the medical bodies have insisted that the pricing of the new contract should be an integral part of the negotiations on the agreement.

The IHCA told its members in a circular last week that it considered the stance of health service management to represent a pre-condition in the talks.

There is also an impasse between the parties over the application of a recent 7.5 per cent pay award to on-call and call-out payments to consultants.

The IHCA has also refused an invitation from management to open discussions on new disciplinary procedures.

The association said that among the reasons for its refusal to participate in such talks was "the continued defiance [ by management] of a Supreme Court judgment which ruled that consultants who are suspended should not have their salaries withheld".

The IHCA also argues that the issue of disciplinary procedures can only be addressed when the overall provisions of the new contract are known.