IMO to recommend deal to resolve doctors' dispute

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) is to recommend that non-consultant hospital doctors accept new proposals aimed at resolving a dispute over long working hours.

The IMO's non-consultant doctor committee tonight accepted a new plan drawn up following talks at the Labour Relations Commission. The proposal will now be sent out to a ballot of non-consultant hospital doctors with a recommendation that it be accepted.

This month non-consultant hospital doctors staged a one-day strike as part of a campaign to end shifts of more than 24 hours and for the health service to comply with EU working-time rules.

The HSE has said it will eliminate 24-hour shifts from January, and implement the EU working-time directive for non-consultant hospital doctors by the end of next year.

One key sticking point was the sanctions to apply to hospitals that breached the new rules. Under the plan hospitals would have some funding withheld from the start of the year and would receive this money back on compliance with the working-time limits.