Prison doctors have postponed mass resignations following a meeting in Dublin this evening. The decision was taken to allow the Prison Service to respond to a number of new demands by the doctors.
Dr Martin Daly, chairman of the GP committee at the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) told ireland.comthe IMO would be writing to the Labour Relations Commission immediately to ask the Prison Service to agree to issues raised by the prison doctors in today's meeting.
According to Dr Daly, the doctors made it clear that the dispute would no longer be resolved by addressing doctors' pay and conditions in isolation of other issues such as establishment of proper psychiatric services in prisons, access to counsellors and social workers and implementation of the fafe-detoxification programme.
"All the doctors are asking for is the implementation of the Olden report which has been Government policy since 2001," said Dr Daly.
The dispute between prison doctors and the Irish Prison Service had earlier taken on added intensity after Army doctors were drafted as cover for prison doctors who refused to perform duties other than emergency work in a dispute over pay.
The row escalated when the Prison Service introduced the Army doctors to treat prisoners in need of "urgent medical attention". However, prison doctors had been providing the same cover previous to the since the industrial action began three weeks ago.
The Prison Service said it had no option in deploying Army medics, saying transfers to hospital A&E units had increased since the action began.
It said there were "particular difficulties" in the treatment of prisoners in need of drug treatment and psychiatric care.
The Prison Service says the full-time doctors are paid an annual salary of €95,000 and that they are seeking an increase to €130,000. The part-time doctors are paid on a pro-rata basis.
Three full-time doctors and 22 part-time doctors are involved in the dispute and are members of the Irish Medical Organisation. They will meet today at 4 p.m. and outcome to their discussions about an hour later.