Doctors threaten strike action over insurance

Hospital consultants have threatened industrial action if members are refused insurance cover, after one of the leading providers announced yesterday it was scaling back some of its services.

Consultants also warned last night that Irish taxpayers may be left with a multimillion euro bill for past medical negligence claims after the Medical Defence Union (MDU) announced it was to discontinue the insurance contract it has offered to consultants in recent years.

The decision by the second-largest mutual society offering insurance to doctors in Ireland means consultants engaged solely in private practice will only be able to avail of cover at the discretion of the MDU rather than securing guaranteed cover.

The MDU said it was taking the action because the Government's indemnity scheme for doctors in public practice meant it was likely to accumulate unsustainable losses.

However, consultants say the MDU's actions are bound up with the thorny question of past liabilities, estimated to be between €100 million and €400 million.

This issue saw hospital consultants vote for industrial action after the MDU and the Department of Health failed to reach agreement on safeguarding cover for patients and obstetricians for these claims.

The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) yesterday claimed the UK-based insurer was engaged in a deliberate strategy to exit the Irish market and to renege on its obligations to consultants.

Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, the IHCA secretary general, said the MDU was also imposing an undue share of the cost burden of historic liabilities on to the Government and taxpayers.

"We want to make it very clear that if any obstetrician is refused cover by the MDU we will revive our programme of industrial action," he said.

However, Dr Michael Saunders, chief executive of the MDU, told The Irish Times that it had no plans to pull out of the Irish market and defended its move to provide insurance on a discretionary basis.