Hospital consultants will meet on Sunday to decide on a campaign of protest action after failing to reach agreement last night with the Department of Health on the introduction of a new way to insure their practices.
The secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said his meeting with the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, and his officials had been robust. It ended without solving the core issue of what will happen the historic liabilities of hospital consultants once they join the new insurance scheme, termed enterprise liability.
This is a key concern because one of the consultants' present insurers, the Medical Defence Union (MDU), has said it may not be able to honour all historic liabilities of obstetricians.
It wants to transfer these liabilities to the State Claims Agency, which will insure consultants from Sunday next, but the amount it has offered the Department to date to take over the liabilities has been insufficient.
After last night's meeting Mr Martin said his officials would contact the MDU to see if it would make an improved offer.
Mr Fitzpatrick welcomed this but said the fact remained that Mr Martin, by introducing enterprise liability without agreement with consultants next Sunday, was breaking their contracts.
He said the national council of the IHCA would meet on Sunday morning to finalise its position on "the phased introduction of sanctions" over what has happened. These measures will be put to the IHCA on Sunday afternoon. "The message from Sunday is that it will be all-out war," he said.
Consultant members of the Irish Medical Organisation have been balloted on enterprise liability. They are expected to reject the proposal, and the result will be known today.