Talks on the dispute which disrupted patient services at Waterford Regional Hospital and Midland General Hospital, Tullamore, got under way at the Labour Relations Commission yesterday and are to reconvene on Friday.
The commission is allowing a month for the talks to reach a conclusion. Issues to be covered include a reduction in the working hours of non-consultant hospital doctors and how this will affect their training and rosters.
The dispute, which affected services to 1,000 patients in the past two weeks, centred on new rosters that meant the basic working week of a doctor could take place, at least in part, outside the current "core" hours of 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Fridays.
The Health Service Employers' Agency argues this is necessary if the working hours of doctors are to be reduced in line with an EU directive. The IMO says working hours must be reduced but that this should be done without taking doctors out of the hospitals during daytime hours. The agency says the IMO is seeking to protect the overtime earnings of doctors.
The IMO's hand could be strengthened this week when the result of a ballot of hospital doctors is likely to produce a majority in favour of industrial action.The industrial action at Waterford and Tullamore and the disputed rosters have been withdrawn.