The Irish Hospital Consultants Association has advised members to ignore letters to be sent out by health service management in the days ahead asking if they are taking part in current industrial action in protest at Government plans for reform of contracts for senior doctors. Martin Wall, Industry Correspondent, reports.
The Department of Health has ruled that association members will not receive a 2 per cent pay increase, due from this week, in view of the current industrial action. However, health service management is unable to determine which of the 2,200 public hospital consultants are members of the association.
The Irish Medical Organisation, which also represents hospital consultants, is not taking part in the industrial action.
Health service management has decided to write to all public hospital consultants over the coming days asking if they are members of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association and if they are taking part in the industrial action.
The association said yesterday it would be advising members next week to ignore the letters. Secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick said that health service management had no right to know about the medical representative organisations of which consultants were members.
The association has said that the department's decision to withhold the pay increase due under the Towards 2016 national agreement could see consultants lose out on about €55 a week. It says it will appeal the move.
Following inconclusive negotiations over recent months, Minister for Health Mary Harney authorised the Health Service Executive in April to advertise 68 new consultant posts on revised terms and conditions, without the agreement of the medical organisations. Hospital consultants were extremely angry and, following a ballot, the association began a campaign of industrial action last month.
As part of this industrial action consultant members of the association are refusing to participate in hospital and national committees and are boycotting some administrative duties.
The IHCA has about 1,800 consultant members while there are about 700-800 in the IMO. A significant number of consultants are members of both organisations, while other doctors are not involved with either.