Fury over HSE decision to end contract

Consultant talks: Talks between the Government and hospital consultants on a new contract are ready to boil over in the wake of a controversial decision by management to abolish rights for senior doctors appointed in future to treat fee-paying patients in private hospitals, according to medical organisations.

Negotiations between health service management and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) are expected to resume amid much acrimony on Thursday morning.

The medical organisations are furious that they were not told at the last round of talks in late January that the Health Service Executive (HSE) board had decided a fortnight previously to abolish the so-called category II consultants' contract which allows doctors to carry out private practice in private hospitals.

A separate row over who should determine the rate of pay for any new revised consultant contract, which has held up progress for a number of weeks, remains unresolved.

However, the decision of health service management to abolish the category II contract and the manner in which the announcement was made has added significantly to the tension between the parties in advance of this week's talks.

Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney announced in the Dáil last Tuesday while answering an oral parliamentary question that no more consultants would be appointed on category II contracts.

She said that in future private hospitals would have to get their own senior medical staff.

The Government had already decided to end private practice rights for new consultants in public hospitals.

Two days after the Tánaiste's comments and after the issue was reported in The Irish Times, the medical organisations received a letter from the HSE informing them that its board had decided on January 13th not to appoint any additional consultants on category II contracts.

The secretary general of the IHCA, Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said his organisation was "stunned" that senior HSE and Department of Health personnel who attended the talks on January 26th and who knew of the decision to abolish the category II contract had said nothing about it.

The director of industrial relations at the IMO, Fintan Hourihan, said his organisation had written to the independent chair of the talks, senior counsel Mark Connaughton, expressing outrage at the move.

Mr Fitzpatrick said the issue exacerbated the "general bad atmosphere" surrounding relations between the Government and hospital consultants over a number of issues since Christmas.

The medical organisations were already angry at comments by the Tánaiste that she would impose a public-only contract for new consultants if agreement was not reached on a revised deal by spring. "Given the general bad atmosphere and reaction to the category II decision I would say that these talks are ready to boil over," Mr Fitzpatrick said.

Mr Hourihan said the HSE was being "provocative" and seeking to "orchestrate conflict".

He said the only reason the Tánaiste had come clean last Tuesday about the secret policy change on the category II consultants was that the IMO had learned details of the move and had written to the HSE chief, Prof Brendan Drumm, some days previously on the issue.

However, Mr Hourihan said the IMO only received a response after the Tánaiste's public comments in the Dáil. He said the mood among his members was extremely angry.

There will also be efforts on Thursday to break the logjam over how any new contract will be priced.