The Minister for Health Mr Martin yesterday dramatically threatened to pull out of talks aimed at solving the row over who will cover hospital consultants for past negligence claims unless they immediately defer plans to step up their strike action next week.
Calling again on the consultants to halt their plans to cancel all elective surgery and outpatient appointments at public and private hospitals from next Monday, Mr Martin warned he may not continue negotiations with the Medical Defence Union (MDU) on the issues in dispute unless they stop their industrial action.
Yesterday the action saw some 1,500 consultant members of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association withdrawing from cooperating from the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
"I have deep reservations about continuing negotiations while a threat of strike hangs over them and we will be making an assessment on that by the middle of the week," the Minister said.
The industrial action was undermining the Government's capacity to negotiate with the MDU, he added.
The secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick said his members would not be intimidated by such threats from the Minister.
"We won't bow to a threat like that. The Minister knows there are certain basics we require before we would pull back from the action planned on February 23rd," he said.
"What we need are assurances and not threats," he added.
The IHCA wants a guarantee the historic liabilities of consultants will be covered. The matter has come to a head since the introduction of a new way of insuring their practice on February 1st. With the introduction of the new State scheme called enterprise liability one of the two bodies that had been insuring the consultants up to then, the MDU, said it could not guarantee it would be able to meet the cost of the historic liabilities of all its Irish members, though those members had paid it their insurance premiums over the years.
The MDU said the amount it took in in premia was not enough to cover the liabilities and wished to transfer them to the State, but only offered €60 million in return for a liability the Department of Health estimates could cost up to €400 million.
Talks aimed at getting an improved offer from the MDU, which is seen as the only realistic way of resolving the dispute, have been ongoing since last week and slow progress is being made. It is these talks the Minister has threatened to pull out of unless the IHCA calls off its action.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of the National Treatment Purchase Fund, Mr Pat O'Byrne, has said the fund may look at referring more patients to hospitals in Northern Ireland and hospitals abroad if the consultants action continues. The fund treats those patients waiting longest on public hospital waiting lists. Up to 200 patients a week due to have operations paid for by the fund will have surgery cancelled while the dispute continues.
The 600 consultants who are members of the Irish Medical Organisation are continuing to work for the fund. The IMO is awaiting a response from the National Implementation Body before deciding whether to ballot its members on industrial action.