Hospital consultants appointed under a new contract may have to work exclusively in the public health system for an initial five years, Minister for Health Mary Harney has said.
Speaking on Saturday at the annual meeting of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), which had earlier voted to enter contract negotiations with the Department of Health, Ms Harney said she was keen to see an increase in the number of full-time, public-hospital-only consultants.
Asked if new appointees would be obliged to work in the public system for an initial period of five years before being allowed to undertake private practice, Ms Harney said she was interested "in possibilities of that nature".
Emphasising the need for teamwork among hospital consultants, Ms Harney said she had recently approved the appointment of seven additional consultants to James Connolly Memorial Hospital, "who will be working in a team rather than as single operators. That is the future . . .
"Health service reform depends on flexibility by consultants. They are the key drivers, the clinical drivers of the system."
Her other priorities for a new consultant contract included a greater role for clinical governance. Ms Harney said those consultants taking on such a role "needed statutory powers to do so. I want to see a greater support for research and education. It is my intention, this autumn, to increase the number of medical students we take in and that means there will have to be greater emphasis on teaching and therefore that has to be recognised in a new contract."
"In terms of work practices, what we want is flexibility. We want seven-day, 24-hour consultant-led services."
However, IHCA general secretary Finbarr Fitzpatrick firmly rejected the suggestion that newly appointed consultants be obliged to work in public hospitals only.
"We are open to all forms of contract but are against the view that it be obligatory for a particular group. We would resist that," he said.
Earlier, IHCA president Dr Josh Keaveny told the meeting: "We badly need more hospital consultants. There have been modest increases in our numbers in recent years, but the ratio of consultants to the Irish population is, in some specialities, less than 50 per cent of the international norm."
Dr PJ Breen, chairman of the IHCA contract committee, said that while a new contract was important, it would "not be negotiated to short-time frames that were politically motivated".