Representatives of junior doctors plan to meet the Health Service Employers' Agency (HSEA) today in a final effort to avert industrial action.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) will meet the HSEA this afternoon at the agency's headquarters in Dublin. The IMO believes the employers will put forward substantial proposals at today's meeting but union representatives are sceptical as to whether they will be enough to avert industrial action.
The IMO's non-consultant hospital doctor committee has a meeting planned for later this afternoon to discuss what form industrial action will take.
"We expect the employers will put forward some kind of position to us," the organisation's industrial relations officer, Mr Fintan Hourihan, said yesterday. "Obviously we will report to our own meeting what we've heard from the HSEA, but unless there's something dramatic I expect we'll be talking about the timing, scope and form of industrial action at our own meeting."
A spokesman for the HSEA declined to comment until after today's meeting.
Five hospitals "named and shamed" by the IMO at its conference last month are the most likely to be hit by any action. These are St Vincent's Hospital and Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin, Cork University Hospital, Galway University Hospital, and Limerick Regional Hospital.
rosullivan@irish-times.ie
