SALARIES:HOSPITAL CONSULTANTS will talk to Government about renegotiating higher salaries if the State is unable to pay the improved deal agreed last year, a senior member of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has signalled.
The deal was brokered last year after consultants signed up to changed work practices.
Prof Seán Tierney, a consultant vascular surgeon at Dublin’s Tallaght hospital and a former chairman of the IMO’s consultant committee, said if Minister for Health Mary Harney felt she was unable to honour the new contract then the IMO was prepared to “discuss things with her”.
But he said Ms Harney had not indicated she would not honour the contract. “It’s our view that all terms of this contract must be honoured by both sides,” he said.
However, he added: “If the Minister comes to us and says listen, we want to renegotiate your contract again even though we just spent four years on it, then we are always available to talk.”
He stressed consultants were aware of the economic climate, had accepted a 9 per cent pension levy and had already made a significant contribution in terms of changed work practices.
Some 80 per cent of consultants have signed up to the more lucrative contracts which rosters them to work around the clock, including weekends. But to date they have not been paid the higher salary scales, which range from €175,000 to €240,000, with the higher salaries going to those consultants who agreed to give up private practice and work exclusively in the public sector.
Following a recent verification process carried out by the HSE to see if consultants are working longer hours, the Minister indicated they will be paid higher salaries this year, but that any pay increases will have to be phased in.
It is not clear yet when these increases will be paid. Ms Harney has said she is considering the issue in the context of the revised HSE service plan for 2009 which is on her desk for approval.
She also indicated last month that a range of allowances due to be paid to consultants who signed up to the new arrangements are being re-examined with a view to reducing costs.
Meanwhile, consultants are not the only doctors to have their pay threatened. The Government announced plans to cut fees to a range of healthcare professionals, including GPs, by about 8 per cent in February.
Since then the IMO and other groups have been invited to make submissions to the Department of Health on the proposed fee reduction. These submissions, according to a spokesman for the department yesterday, are still being considered.
Speaking at the conference, outgoing president of the organisation Dr Martin Daly said GPs have already accepted a reduction in capitation fees for the treatment of over-70s patients since January, on foot of the automatic medical card entitlement to those over-70 being abolished in October’s budget. He said this should be taken into account in any bid by the Government to reduce their fees further.
If allowances paid to GPs which enable them to employ staff such as practice nurses are subject to the planned fee reduction, many doctors may be forced to cut staff hours and perhaps make nurses and administrators redundant.
Medical card patients may also suffer because services delivered on a pro-bono basis by GPs may stop. GPs may also have to transfer care in some instances to the local hospitals and they may be unable to accept new patients.