THE DEPARTMENT of Health has refused to approve pay increases of 2.5 per cent due under the national agreement to more than 50 senior public health doctors for allegedly failing to co-operate with the introduction of a new out-of-hours service.
The secretary general of the Department of Health, Michael Scanlan, has in recent days agreed with a "citing" or recommendation made to him by the Health Service Executive (HSE) that the money should not be paid.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said its public health doctor members were "furious" at the decision. The IMO described the move by the Department of Health as "extremely unfair". It is now to appeal the decision not to pay the increase to the Labour Court.
IMO chief executive George McNeice said health service management accepted that there were insufficient numbers of public health doctors in place to operate an out-of-hours roster. However, he said the IMO had agreed to take part in interim out-of-hours arrangements so that the country could fulfil international obligations in emergency cases.
Mr McNeice told The Irish Timesthat health service management had agreed to bring forward proposals in this area but this had not happened.
He also said that a meeting scheduled over the summer on the issue had not taken place.
Public health doctors' roles include dealing with disease outbreaks and protecting the public from such outbreaks as well as issues such as vaccination.
Pay increases under the national agreement for health sector staff have to be approved by the Department of Health secretary general as part of a verification process.
However, in a letter to the IMO last week Mr Scanlan effectively supported the "citing" or recommendation made to him by HSE management and said he was not prepared to authorise the increases at this time.
"It is a matter of deep concern that an urgently needed structured out-of-hours service to be provided by directors or public health and specialists in public health medicine has not been put in place even on an interim basis as recommended by the Labour Court in June 2007.
"Given the distinct lack of progress to date in implementing this priority objective I am not prepared to sanction the payment of the increase of 2.5 per cent for the doctors concerned," he said.
Mr Scanlan said he would review the decision when he was satisfied that there was "clear evidence of a demonstrable commitment on their part to co-operate with the introduction and operation of an effective out-of-hours service".
The HSE had also "cited" about 28,000 health sector workers who were members of the trade union Impact. They had been engaged in industrial action since last May in protest at HSE recruitment restrictions and the failure to implement existing agreements.
However, following a settlement of this row last week it is now expected that these staff will receive the increases.
