Delegates at the annual meeting of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) have passed a motion of no-confidence in the Government’s current health policy.
Motion proposer Dr Ruairí Hanley urged the support of delegates because the “incompetence and arrogance” of the Health Service Executive (HSE) meant hundreds of people are suffering on trolleys in the “ongoing chaos” of A&E departments.
Dr Hanley said: “Susie Long, Ann Moriarty and Edel Kelly and many other people continue to suffer and die as a result of the failings of this government and its creation, that inept and cowardly organisation - the HSE.”
By adopting the motion Dr Hanley said the IMO has sent the Government a message “on behalf of all those we care for, on behalf of all those who have suffered, who are suffering, who have died and who will die as a result of their incompetence and their failures”.
The three-day IMO annual meeting opened in Killarney, Co Kerry, this morning and is expected to be dominated by a threat to patient services posed by a cut in professional fees and allowances to family doctors.
Doctors will debate a motion calling on the Government to introduce legislation that would ensure that alcohol and drug samples would be taken from all drivers involved in road traffic accidents where a person is injured or killed.
Dr Declan Bedford, a specialist in public health medicine in the northeast, will also propose a motion requesting the Minister for Transport to immediately reduce the drink-driving limit.
They will also debate the introduction of graphic warning labels on tobacco products, an increase of €2 on a packet of 20 cigarettes, health screening of asylum seekers and the creation of electronic medical records on a national basis.
Earlier today, outgoing president Dr Martin Daly said members are concerned that gains made over the last 10 years will be lost with a reduction in services due to the current economic situation.
"We need to be careful not to make short term decisions purely on economic costs without considering the mid to long-term problems that might create for patients and for the health service," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
He also warned of the “lack of confidence” among IMO members in the HSE's ability to implement its reconfiguration programme.
Dr Daly said: “The closing down of smaller hospitals is contingent on delivering the primary care strategy and primary teams which simply hasn’t happened.
“The feeling of our members is that the smaller hospitals will be closed - places like Ennis and Nenagh - and that in effect people will have to travel longer distances and there will be less services available to them.”
Dr Daly was replaced by Dr John Morris as IMO president today.
Junior hospital doctors will be constrained by legal factors from discussing the unilateral cut in their training grants by the HSE, which is the subject of a High Court action taken by the IMO.
Hospital consultants will discuss the failure of Minister for Health Mary Harney to implement all elements of the new consultant contract. Ms Harney has indicated she will not be attending this year’s annual meeting due to a prior engagement.
But the looming threat to a wide range of primary care services if the Government goes ahead with plans to reduce allowances that enable GPs to employ practice nurses and administrators is likely to dominate discussions over the next three days.
Medical card patients and children due childhood vaccinations are among those who may suffer.