THE GOVERNMENT has reduced the level of fees paid to consultant psychiatrists for serving on mental health tribunals by 8 per cent.
Under the provisions of financial emergency legislation introduced last year, the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has decided to reduce the fees paid from €428 to €394 per case.
The fees payable to independent consultants under the tribunal process will be cut from €535 to €492 per case.
The move represents the first new reduction in professional fees in the health sector to be announced this year.
In July, the Department of Health confirmed fee cuts which had been put in place last year. Under the terms of the financial emergency legislation these had to be reviewed in the summer.
The scope for further reductions in fees for other health service professionals such as GPs, dentists, optometrists and smear-takers under the CervicalCheck programme, is still being considered by the Department of Health.
Ms Harney decided that the fee levels paid to pharmacists would not be reviewed again.
Following the budget last December, the Department of Health said it wanted to save about €45 million on professional fees this year. However, it seems unlikely that this scale of savings will be achieved.
Mental health tribunals carry out a review of cases of persons admitted involuntarily to psychiatric hospitals. By law, a consultant psychiatrist must be a member of each tribunal. Consultant psychiatrists also carry out independent medical examinations and prepare case reports.
Last year, the Department of Health introduced an 8 per cent cut in fees paid to consultant psychiatrists for work carried out as part of mental health tribunals.
However, in recent months the Mental Health Commission warned the Government that the imposition of further cuts in professional fees could cause it difficulties in securing consultant psychiatrists to serve on mental health tribunals.
In a submission to the department, the chief executive officer of the Mental Health Commission, Hugh Kane, said from an operational perspective the impact of the cuts introduced in 2009 had been “minimal” for the commission.
“However, should there be a further reduction in fees following the upcoming review, this may impact on the recruitment of consultant psychiatrists for the mental health panels,” he said.
In a statement yesterday, the Department of Health said the new fees took effect from the end of last month. It was estimated that the reductions would generate €160,000 in savings in a full year.
However, it said the Mental Health Commission had been asked to apply a similar level of reduction to the fees paid to other tribunal members on an administrative basis, outside of the provisions of the financial emergency legislation.
The Department of Health said this would generate further savings of about €400,000 over a full year.