Doctors appointed to consultant posts in public hospitals will in future have to be on the Medical Council's register of medical specialists, or be eligible to be placed on it, it emerged last night. Martin Wall, Industry Correspondent, reports.
It is understood that agreement on the new requirement has been reached as part of indirect contacts over recent days between health service management and medical organisations on outstanding issues in the new contract for senior hospital doctors.
Health service management and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) reached an agreement on the broad outline of a new contract last week but a number of issues remained unresolved.
Over recent days the independent chairman of the talks process, senior counsel Mark Connaughton, met all the parties on the outstanding issues.
Mr Connaughton last night delivered a report on the deal between management and the IHCA and set out recommendations on the unresolved issues. He recommended that in future new consultants should either be on the specialist register or be eligible to be on it.
"This recommendation obviously could not have application in respect of persons who might be entitled to an appointment by reason of the application of the Protection of Employees (Fixed Term Work) Act, 2003 and there may also be practical issues arising from recent advertisements of consultant posts," he said.
It is understood Mr Connaughton's proposals have been accepted by management and will be incorporated into the final legal contract document to be drawn up shortly. The new education and training requirement for consultants had been particularly sought by the Irish Medical Organisation, which is not a party to the contract agreement reached last week.
The IMO said last night that Mr Connaughton's new report would be considered by its negotiating team next week. There has been no change to the agreement reached last week governing pay and private practice rights under the new contract.
The new rules setting out that private practice in public hospitals should be limited to 20 per cent will come into effect from next September. Where this ratio is exceeded, fees generated by the private practice over the quota will be paid into a research fund through the clinical directorate in the hospital.
The new deal will see consultants on the new type A contract, with no private practice, paid up to €240,000. Those on type B contracts, with limited private practice in public and co-located hospitals will earn up to €220,000 and those on type C arrangements, with off-site private practice rights, will get up to €175,000.