Negotiations: Negotiations between the Government and hospital consultants on a new contract, which have been stalled for the past five months, are to recommence at the end of June.
The organisations representing consultants, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), have both agreed with proposals put forward by independent talks chairman, senior counsel Mark Connaughton, for negotiations to recommence in the last week of June.
However, the aim of the talks will be to see if the deadlock can be broken on a number of issues which have delayed negotiations on the substantive issues of a new contract. According to a number of participants, the new negotiations will be "talks about talks".
It is understood the Department of Health has recently drawn up a new position paper for the consultant contract talks. Senior Department of Health figures would like to have a new contract with consultants agreed by the end of July. However, this date is considered to be very optimistic by the medical organisations.
The talks on a new agreement between consultants and the Government have been stalled since February as a result of a row over the unilateral decision of the board of the HSE to abolish a form of contract which allowed doctors to treat fee-paying patients in private hospitals.
There was also a dispute between the parties over whether the issue of additional remuneration for work changes should be determined within the current talks process or referred to the independent review body which examines top-level pay across the public sector.
IHCA secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick told The Irish Times that the national council of the organisation had decided on Saturday to re-engage in negotiations with health service management for a maximum of two meetings. Mr Fitzpatrick said that within one or two meetings it should become apparent whether the basis for agreement existed to allow the parties to move on to substantive negotiations.
The director of industrial relations at the IMO, Fintan Hourihan, said there would be no progress on the substantive issues of a new contract without the outstanding problems being addressed.
A new contract with hospital consultants is one of the key elements of the Government's overall healthcare reforms. The Government has proposed that in future hospital consultants should be salaried employees working a 39-hour week. They would work as part of teams and have no right to outside private practice.
Last Christmas Minister for Health Mary Harney said that unless a new deal was in place by Easter she would move towards imposing a new contract. At the weekend, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen criticised hospital consultants for the delay in agreeing a new contract.
Last month Ms Harney urged hospital consultants to re-engage with the talks process on a new contract. She signalled that the HSE board had established a special sub-committee that would allow it to respond speedily and tactically to developments in the negotiations without having to wait for the normal monthly meeting to consider issues. However, the medical organisations have said that for four weeks after Ms Harney's comments there were no move from the management side to convene new talks.
