Partnership issue: Hospital consultants have been criticised by managers and unions for failing to engage in a partnership approach to operating the health service.
A study of how partnership in the sector has been working, since formal structures were put in place five years ago, is to be outlined at a conference in Dublin tomorrow. It will hear that the biggest concern of those involved in partnership, at both union and management level, has been the perceived refusal of consultants to get involved.
Isobel Butler, an organisational psychologist who carried out the study, said many of the 20 partnership committees across the State believed they should have a medical involvement, but did not have it. "Participants were of the clear view that non-involvement of medics leads to a lack of credibility for partnership committees and the actual partnership process," her report notes.
The committees were established by the Health Services National Partnership Forum (NHSPF), whose joint chairman, Matt Merrigan, echoed members' concerns. "We can't get the consultants involved at local level. They have engaged in some locations and it has been very successful. But there is a concern about how we can tackle the big issues without the strongest voices being present," he said.
The criticism was, however, rejected by the secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, Finbarr Fitzpatrick. He confirmed IHCA members had disengaged from partnership committees early this year in line with a general policy not to negotiate with the Department of Health, arising from the current dispute over medical insurance.
Prior to that withdrawal, however, consultants had taken an active part in the partnership process, he said. Once the insurance issue was resolved, they would be prepared to do so again and had made that clear to the Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Ms Harney, he said.