Ireland is "woefully unprepared" for a major emergency and the health service would be unable to cope with such an event, the Irish Medical Organisation conference has been told.
Former IMO president Dr Mick Molloy said Ireland was "due" a bad plane or train crash but didn't have the systems to cope because emergency departments were already full.
Dr Molloy said he had written textbooks on the issue but no one had ever sought to consult him on what might be done.
The meeting called for an urgent review of major emergency response plans.
Outgoing IMO president Dr Ray Walley said if the incoming government failed to appreciate the urgency of the situation in the health service, the next five years would be spent "rolling from crisis to crisis".
“And if that happens, I have little doubt that we will lose the confidence of a generation of highly trained doctors who will vote with their feet and leave this country to practise elsewhere and consign our patients to a service that will be unfit for practice,” he said.
Meanwhile, the IMO said it had started legal proceedings to secure the release of salary increases which it claims are due since 2009.
Consultant contract
The IMO said the money was due under the terms of the 2008 consultant contract but had been unlawfully withheld by the
Health Service Executive
(HSE) over the past seven years.
The HSE will soon face a bill of €250 million-€300 million following a successful legal action by hospital consultants over its failure to pay salary increases due since 2009, The Irish Times reported this week.
Dr Peadar Gilligan, chairman of the IMO consultant committee, confirmed the union's plan to take a High Court case at the organisation's agm in Sligo.
Responding to the report in The Irish Times, which said the Attorney General was advising the Government that the HSE action cannot be defended, he questioned why the HSE would “waste further taxpayer money by fighting this issue”.
“The IMO will vigorously pursue this issue and will proceed with legal cases to the High Court unless the matter is settled,” Dr Gilligan said.
