EMERGENCY MEDICINE consultants are set to receive back-payments of up to €200,000 after the decision of an arbitrator that they were improperly deprived of private practice rights. And the decision means it is likely that some elements of the new contract for hospital consultants will be renegotiated.
As part of a long-running dispute between consultants who oversee the State's emergency departments, and the Health Service Executive (HSE), Mark Connaughton SC, independent chairman of the recent consultant contract negotiations, recommended the dispute over payment for private practice be dealt with in isolation from the main talks.
"Whatever the merits of this grievance, it has existed for some time and falls to be determined under the existing contract," Mr Connaughton said earlier this year.
In an arbitration ruling dated July 30th, which is binding on both the HSE and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), arbitrator Tom Mallon noted: "It does seem to me, on balance, that consultants in emergency medicine have been deprived of opportunities to engage in private practice."
Mr Mallon was also asked to decide whether any compensation should be awarded. He ruled that each emergency medicine consultant should be reclassified so that they are on the same pay band as psychiatrists, geriatricians and consultants in palliative medicine, and that the recategorisation should be back-dated to January 1st, 1998 or their individual date of appointment. He recommended arrears be paid to the consultants no later than November 1st, 2008.
However, the arbitrator rejected the proposal from both the IHCA and the IMO that their members were entitled to a fee for each patient who opted to be admitted privately to hospital. Instead, he proposed that an equitable method of dealing with this aspect of the claim was to pay each consultant in emergency medicine the equivalent of 4 per cent of their salary earned since January 1st, 1998.
But because of the complex categorisation of posts under the existing common contract for consultants, under which senior doctors are paid at different rates depending on whether they practise in the east, south or west of the State, the amount of back pay will vary widely. Some consultants who have been working post in the west since 1998, for example, may gain substantially less than their colleagues in the east.
The sources said the implications for the recently agreed Connaughton consultant contract could be significant. They predict that no currently employed emergency medicine consultant would opt for the new contract, as it would mean a slightly lower rate of hourly pay due to the increased 37-hour commitment. Under existing contracts, hospital consultants work an 11-session, 33-hour week. For emergency medicine consultants, the arbitrator's ruling means they will now enjoy salaries in the region of €200,000 per annum.
It is thought the IMO, which, unlike the IHCA, has yet to fully agree some aspects of the new contract, is likely to use the arbitrator's emergency medicine findings to seek a higher hourly pay rate for other consultants.