Industrial action by hospital consultants represented by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has been deferred for a week. The action, which was due to begin on Monday, has now been put off until Monday week.
The decision to defer its notice of strike action over medical malpractice insurance for seven days was taken at an emergency meeting of the IMO's consultants' committee yesterday.
At the meeting, a letter was considered from the Department of Health setting out assurances given to the IMO last week at a meeting with Minister for Health Mary Harney.
Ms Harney told the IMO no consultant refused assistance by the British-based Medical Defence Union would be left uncovered by the State.
However, Fintan Hourihan, director of IMO industrial relations, said the letter did not contain all assurances given to the IMO at its meeting with Ms Harney. "The contents of the letter fell short of what we understood we had been told by the Tánaiste."
The committee, he added, was disappointed at this, and had decided to write to Ms Harney for clarification of the department's letter in the coming days.
If the assurances she gave at the meeting are put in writing, it is likely the strike action will be called off when the IMO consultants' committee meets again next Monday.
If the action goes ahead, however, it will see the IMO's 600-plus consultants providing emergency cover only. Outpatient appointments and elective surgery would be cancelled.
Just over a week ago the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, which represents about 1,500 consultants, called off its plans for industrial action after getting the same assurances as the IMO from Ms Harney on the indemnity issue.
A spokesman for Ms Harney last night welcomed the IMO decision to suspend its action.
Meanwhile, the Medical Defence Union has written to the Department of Health saying it would be happy "if conditions were right" to re-enter talks seeking a resolution to the dispute over consultants' historic liabilities. The union pulled out of talks with the department last month after Ms Harney accused it of having "behaved disgracefully", and of having "betrayed" Irish doctors and patients.
Since a new State insurance scheme for consultants was introduced in February 2004, the union has refused cover to 30 Irish consultants who are being sued for historic liabilities.
It claims it does not have the resources to meet historic claims. It wants the State to take over most of the cost of these claims, which the State says is about €400 million.