Irish medical staff 'not among best paid'

PAY LEVELS for medical specialists are not the most generous in Europe contrary to some suggestions, the new president of the Irish Medical Organisation has indicated.

In his presidential address to the organisation’s annual conference on Saturday night Dr Paul McKeown said, when using OECD comparative data, Ireland was not among the top six countries in the OECD which had the most highly remunerated specialists.

“Medical specialists, general practitioners, community doctors and non-consultant hospital doctors have taken their public service pay cuts along with the rest of the public sector and are prepared to do what is necessary to see our country returned to financial health, but the load must be shared equally and calculations based upon fact and not on inaccurate or incomplete data.”

Dr McKeown said the organisation believed there should be a public debate on the exact model of universal healthcare to be introduced by the Government as the key element of its planned health service reforms.

He said to date the organisation had not seen any plan for the Government’s proposed system of universal health insurance.

He said there were numerous models from which to choose and the key would be choosing a fair system that adequately ensured the health of all, that ensured that best practice underpinned the working of professionals and that was tailored to the needs of the Irish State.

“The IMO has called for a public debate about the development of a fair, one-tiered system of ensuring adequate stakeholder involvement, access to detailed plans and funding mechanisms, stringent analysis of current and future manpower resources and a realistic timetable for implementation.”

Dr McKeown said the organisation was in favour of a single-tier system based on the medical needs of patients rather than their ability to pay. He said the issue of the market model of healthcare had been considered in a scientific session at the conference and had generated intense debate with a clear majority of the opinion that such a model was not the best option for Ireland.

He said it was very important that the current economic problems were used as an opportunity to redesign the country’s health system, building in greater efficiencies.

“The system itself should be patient-centred and joined up. In other words funding should follow the patient, the system should be run in such a way as to minimise blockages in admission and discharge, there should be greater emphasis and training in working in teams so that skills are matched to the need of the team and the patient.”

Meanwhile, the conference passed a motion calling on the Minister for Health to order an urgent review of the centralised medical card applications system given the “disastrous experience” for vulnerable patients in the last 12 months.

Dr Martin Daly said he had a 62-year-old patient who had paid tax for 40 years and was now unemployed for the first time.

He said his patient had spent six months getting a medical card and last month did not get medicines for his condition, or for his wife, as he could not afford it.

Dr Daly said it was unacceptable that people who had paid tax all their lives and now found themselves in a vulnerable financial situation had to face such problems.

The conference rejected proposals by the Mayo branch for a €5 charge to be introduced for medical card patients who called out a doctor after hours.

Mayo GP Ken Egan said from his point of view the 50 cent charge on prescriptions had worked very well.

“After 40 years patients are suddenly saying to me I do not need that doctor, or do I need that doctor?” he said. He said it eventually dawned on him they did not want to pay the 50 cent charge.

He maintained the charge had also stopped patients “hoarding” medicines that they did not need.