HOSPITAL consultants will tomorrow outline their reasons for rejecting "draconian" working conditions proposed in a new draft contract by the Department of Health.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) will demand the retraction of the draft at a meeting tomorrow with the independent chairman of the talks process which is aimed at negotiating an updated common contract for 1,064 consultants.
Department officials and the IHCA have had discussions since last January on the updated contract which consultants will have to enter into with hospitals in return for pay increases.
The IHCA walked out of a meeting with Department officials earlier this month after the draft contract was produced.
The IHCA decided at an extraordinary general meeting at the weekend to boycott further face to face negotiations with the Department until the draft contract is removed from the talks agenda.
Its terms demand more accountability from consultants who are contracted by the Department to work a 33 hour week in public hospitals which they supplement by treating private patients.
The average consultant earns about £60,000 a year for treating public patients and some £45,000 in private practice earnings, according to the IHCA.
The Health Service Employers' Agency has said management's concern was that consultants' private practice was not conducted at the expense of public patients.
It wants consultants to tell their hospitals where they are going to be when they are not in the hospitals.
Dr Peter Kelly, the chairman of IHCA's contract negotiating committee, said demands for details of what consultants do outside of their public commitment was "intrusive, oppressive and clearly an interference with an individual's right to privacy".
"That's why we're fired up about it, and also that it implies that consultants are not fulfilling their contracts," he said after Saturday's meeting.
Dr Kelly said there was no evidence consultants were not fulfilling their contracts and the majority of consultants were willing to forgo pay rises rather than accept such working conditions.
The IHCA's secretary general Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, warned of "serious consequences" for hospital services if talks with the Department did not resume.
While ruling out industrial action, Mr Fitzpatrick said the goodwill of consultants was "vital in terms of maximising the number of patients treated".
Mr Fitzpatrick said the consultants' stance against industrial action had led to their situation being "longfingered" by the Department.
If consultants were more militant" they wouldn't be in the situation they found themselves today.
Dr Kelly said the deadlock in negotiations would lead to "increasing alienation and disenchantment" among consultants in the short to medium term. He said it would be increasingly difficult to attract consultants back to Ireland from the UK and the US.
"This means we will be exporting talent and not importing it. That has very serious consequences. There are a few examples already of people not coming back to unattractive posts."