Report calls for new consultants to have pay parity with colleagues within 5 years

Newly appointed hospital consultants who receive a salary 30 per cent lower than colleagues appointed before autumn 2012 should be allowed to achieve pay parity within three to five years, a working group examining the problem of recruiting and retaining senior doctors has advised.

The submission, given to the head of the HSE Tony O'Brien in November, also suggested some candidates for consultant positions in the public health system be allowed to join at a higher point on the salary scale "depending on specific criteria such as relevant fellowship, postgraduate or management experience".

Flexibility in pay
The submission, drawn up by a group of HSE officials, representatives of medical training bodies and trainees, also recommended that hospitals be allowed flexibility within national frameworks "in offering individualised remuneration packages to applicants related to factors such as intensity of on-call rota, geographical isolation and unsocial hours".

It maintained that the public health system was facing a recruitment crisis for consultant posts as well as great challenges in “retaining or attracting home our graduates”.

“The short-term consequences are already evident with unfilled posts, increased reliance on locums and forced adaptation and curtailment of services. The long-term legacy will be a decline in the quality and standards of healthcare, teaching, research and academia. We face a real danger of regression to a previous era when healthcare standards were highly variable.”

Revised pay structure
At the weekend Minister for Health James Reilly said he had asked his officials to develop new proposals for revised pay structures for hospital consultants.

Measures introduced in September 2012 set the pay for new consultants at €95,000 to €116,000 depending on the type of contract involved.

The Minister said that while the current starting salary for newly appointed consultants (working in the public system only) was higher than in many countries, “it is clear that without latitude and under current interpretations, problems have arisen in terms of the movement of well-established consultants”.

Meanwhile yesterday, the Irish Medical Organisation warned the current policy "was forcing both existing consultants and future consultants to seek work elsewhere".