There is no justification for the threat of industrial action by hospital consultants over plans to introduce a new way of insuring their practice, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said yesterday, writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent
Mr Martin plans to introduce the new scheme, known as enterprise liability, on February 1st.
However, the consultant representative bodies, the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association and the Irish Medical Organisation say they are unhappy with the plan as currently proposed.
This is because it does not cover consultants who work exclusively in private practice or historic liabilities of consultants once they join the scheme.
IHCA secretary general, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said while members of the organisation had a policy of not taking industrial action, this may change on the issue of enterprise liability if it is introduced as currently proposed and without agreement.
The IMO meanwhile will ballot its members on the proposals and if members reject them, which is expected, the union will decide either on a course of industrial action or on a legal challenge to the scheme.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin yesterday, Mr Martin said he was very disappointed with the degree to which the ante had been upped by the consultant representative bodies. He felt, he added, that much progress had been made in talks between his Department and the consultants. However, talks broke up without agreement last Thursday and the IHCA decided at the weekend to hold an extraordinary general meeting of members for February 1st to decide what action they should take.
"I don't think industrial action is justified at all," Mr Martin said.
He said his Department had made a lot of concessions in the talks to date, including an offer to make some contribution to the private practice of consultants.He also said he could not ask the taxpayer to cover alleged malpractice of consultants which occurred on a date before they joined the new scheme. This could cost up to €400 million, he said. At present the State pays up to 80 per cent of consultants' annual insurance premia. Mr Martin said there was no point in paying about €30 million in this way again this year when there was a State scheme in place.
Meanwhile, efforts by the Government to reduce the working hours of junior doctors to 58 hours a week by next August to comply with a European Working Time Directive will not be affected by the EU Commission's decision to review the directive, Mr Martin said.