Hospital consultants have strongly supported their obligation to highlight deficiencies in patient care, whether they affect an individual patient or the health system itself.
Proposing a motion endorsing the time-honoured advocacy role of doctors, Mr Niall Considine, consultant ENT surgeon at Sligo General Hospital, said consultants must be allowed to advocate publicly and responsibly for patients. "To do otherwise would be a dereliction of our duties," he said.
Reference was made in the debate to the unacceptable nature of some health board employment clauses, in particular one which states "that the giving of interviews, statements or other information connected with the services provided by the board should not be undertaken without the prior approval of the chief executive officer".
While acknowledging the need to inform health board officials about deficiencies in patient services, delegates agreed that they must be free to act as advocates on their patients behalf.
The poor industrial relations record of the Department of Health and Children and the Health Services Employers Agency was deplored in a motion proposed by the IHCA past president, Dr Joan Daly, consultant psychiatrist at St Senan's Hospital in Enniscorthy.
The planning deficiencies of the Department of Health were sing led out for criticism by Dr Tom O'Callaghan, consultant anaesthetist at Louth County Hospital.
A motion expressing concern at the proposals contained in a recent Department of Health discussion document on enterprise liability was also passed. While acknowledging a patient's right to sue a doctor for medical negligence, delegates opposed the proposals on the grounds of the danger they posed to clinical independence and their failure to address the core issues driving indemnity subscriptions levels.
Dr Seamus O Cathaill, consultant radiotherapist at Cork University Hospital, proposed a motion to support the right of every citizen to hospital services within an appropriate time-frame. He reminded delegates of the recent High Court decision on the provision of adequate education for autistic children.
Referring to his own experience, in which the number of beds available for the treatment of cancer patients has dropped from 27 to 10, he urged the association to call for the provision of sufficient resources to guarantee hospital admission within a reasonable timescale.
The a.g.m. also expressed its concern for the future of private medicine in the Republic. Dr Mark Laher of the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin warned that the health system would collapse if it was not for the 2,500 beds in the private sector. The synergistic role of private medicine in healthcare must be recognised, he said.