Hospital doctors expected to back strike action in ballot on Tuesday

Doctors of all grades working in public hospitals who are members of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) are expected to vote in favour of strike action in a ballot result to be announced on Tuesday .

The IMO has sought a mandate from its 3,500 consultant and non-consultant hospital doctor members for industrial action, up to and including withdrawal of services, over pay and recruitment issues.

Any industrial action is unlikely to take place until mid to late January. It could involve an escalating campaign commencing with hospital doctors working only to their strict contractual terms or refusing to provide out-patient clinics and potentially building up to a full strike.

The IMO said its key demands were an immediate end to the current two-tier pay system which sees medical specialists appointed after October 2012 paid considerably less than their longer-serving colleagues.

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It also wants an immediate increase in the number of consultants working in public hospitals.

Government offer

Last week Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government would offer to end the lower pay system in place for hospital consultants appointed in recent years if they agreed to treat only public patients.

Mr Varadkar said this would represent the first step towards disentangling the public-private mix in public hospitals, in line with the Sláintecare health reform programme.

“We are working on consultant pay. We are willing to make an offer to doctors with regard to consultant pay - we will give full pay equality for consultants, provided consultants commit to working in the public service and the public service only.”

“I hope they are up for it,” he said.

The Taoiseach’s comments in the Dáil represented the clearest articulation of Government policy for dealing with the controversial two-tier pay system for senior doctors in public hospitals which medical bodies maintain has led to the shortage of specialists in many areas.

Equal pay commitment

However the Taoiseach’s proposals were rejected as “spin” by the IMO.

The doctors’ trade union said that when he was Minister for Health, Mr Varadkar had committed to equal pay for all consultants.

"The health services are struggling and waiting lists are out of control due to the fact that we have 500 vacant consultant posts, few or no applicants for posts and are losing more and more doctors to other health systems where they are valued and respected. The Taoiseach and Minister for Health must take responsibility for a Fine Gael policy that cut the pay of consultants appointed since 2012 by 30 per cent. No other public service workers faced this kind of discrimination. The Taoiseach can't now change the game by talking about resolving this awful discrimination for some consultants but not for others. We'll talk reform when the pay gap for all consultants has been ended."

Medical bodies claim consultants appointed after October 2012 earn up to €50,000 less than longer-serving colleagues, and that this had led to health authorities being unable to fill about 500 posts on a full-time basis.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association, which also represents consultants in public hospitals, has a traditional policy of not engaging in industrial action. It is , however, also pressing the Government to end the two-tier pay system.