The body representing the majority of hospital consultants in the State warned yesterday it will consider "ramping up" its campaign of industrial action if there are any further breakdowns in the talks aimed at resolving a row over who will insure consultants for past events.
The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association issued the warning just days after the British insurer, the Medical Defence Union (MDU), walked out of talks with the Department of Health.
However, the negotiations got back on track on Tuesday after the MDU returned to the talks. Both sides are due to meet again next Wednesday.
Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, secretary general of the IHCA, said if there was any further breakdown in the negotiations "or walkouts by either party the issue of ramping up our campaign of action will be back on the agenda".
He said the Department of Health and the MDU were both due to provide the IHCA with written updates on the negotiations by tomorrow and the information would be discussed at a national council meeting of the IHCA on Saturday.
"If we have proof of real and substantial progress, despite the talks being well behind time from our point of view, it's unlikely that the campaign of action will be ramped up," he added.
The IHCA began a campaign of action on February 1st after the Department introduced, without their agreement, a new way of insuring consultants for medical negligence. Their action began with members withdrawing from national and hospital committees. However, a serious escalation of the campaign which would have seen hospitals reduced to emergency services only was postponed to allow talks take place between the Department and the MDU.
The consultants' main worry about their new State insurance scheme, called enterprise liability, was that it did not cover them for historic liabilities. This was a huge concern as the MDU, which had been insuring many of them up to February 1st, said it could not guarantee it would be able to meet their historic liabilities either, even though the consultants had paid it annual insurance premiums over the years.
The MDU said it didn't take in enough in premiums to guarantee it would be able to cover claims, particularly those against obstetricians. Their historic liabilities are estimated by the Department of Health to amount to about €400 million. Independent auditors will this morning begin a trawl of MDU accounts on behalf of the Department.