Doctors have formally requested a meeting with the Minister for Health to see how industrial action can be deferred after they rejected the minister's plan to introduce a new insurance liability scheme.
Members of the Irish Medical Organisation rejected the Clinical Indemnity Scheme proposals by 96 per cent, a statement from the IMO said.
The scheme was due to be introduced from next week. However, the IMO urged the Minister for Health to defer it's implementation to allow further talks.
IMO Consultant Chairperson, Dr Christine O'Malley said: "There is a great degree of uncertainty amongst Consultants as to whether our insurance will cover our care of patients from February 1st. Un-insured doctors, means un-insured patients."
"Equally consultants are extremely angry at the breach of the terms of the consultant contract. This does nothing to bridge the gap of trust between the management side and the medical profession which is an ongoing issue for members of the entire profession."
The IMO's director of industrial relations, Mr Fintan Hourihan, said that introducing an Enterprise Liability Scheme unilaterally was "a clear breach" of the terms and conditions of the Consultants Common Contract and the industrial peace clause of the Sustaining Progress agreement".
"This decision will have the effect of tearing up the basis of negotiations for consultants and the terms of the common contract and cause profound and long lasting damage to relations between the
Department of Health & Children and Consultants.
"It will also raise serious questions of the administration and its intentions regarding industrial relations issues arising from health service reform programmes."
"The IMO has formally requested a further meeting with the Minister to discuss the basis on which an official dispute can be avoided and an agreed basis negotiated to resolve outstanding issues we have
identified, in accordance with the terms of the common contract," the statement added.
The Irish Medical Organisation represents over 6,500 Consultants, general practitioners, non-consultant house doctors and public health Doctors.
Meanwhile, members of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association are to meet the minister on Sunday after they failed to reach agreement with the Department of Health yesterday on a new way to insure their practices.
The main issue in question is what will happen the historic liabilities of hospital consultants once they join the new enterprise liability scheme.
One of the consultants' present insurers, the Medical Defence Union (MDU), has said it may not be able to honour all historic liabilities of obstetricians and wants to transfer them to the State Claims Agency, which will insure consultants from Sunday.
The Department of Health could not be contacted for immediate comment this evening.