MEMBERS of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) have voted to accept the terms of a revised contract of employment put forward for hospital consultants by health service management.
When voting closed yesterday evening and ballots were counted some 68 per cent of the IMO's consultant members who voted had voted in favour, while 71 per cent of its specialist registrars - junior doctors most likely to apply for any new consultant posts created in future - voted for the new contracts.
About 850 consultants and 500 special registrars were balloted by the IMO, but it would not say what the turnout was like. One source described it as "moderate".
The larger of the two consultant organisations - the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association - balloted its members last month and 80 per cent of them voted in favour of accepting new working conditions.
The IHCA had recommended to its members that they accept the new contracts, whereas the IMO had issued ballot papers without any recommendation on how members should vote.
The acceptance of the new contract by members of the IMO after four years of negotiation was welcomed last night by the HSE.
The new contracts will see consultants rostered to work in teams over an extended 37-hour week, with a longer working weekday from 8am to 8pm and five hours on Saturdays and Sundays. There will also be strict monitoring of private practice.
Dr Trevor Duffy, chairman of the IMO consultant committee, stated that despite the result of the ballot the union still had concerns that significant numbers of individual consultants would not opt to switch to the new contracts.
It was essential, he said, that renewed efforts were made to address remaining concerns about the new contracts ahead of the proposed August 31st deadline for consultants to decide whether to switch to revised contracts.
The new contracts will automatically apply to all newly-recruited consultants but it will be up to existing consultants to decide whether they want to switch.
The new contract comes in three categories. Those who work with public patients only will earn a basic salary of €240,000 a year. There will be a contract for those who engage in limited private practice on the public hospital campus or in co-located hospitals. A third contract will allow doctors in the public system to treat patients outside the public hospital campus.