Consultants react coolly to deal aimed at solving pay and retention issues

The Government has approved the offer of a new contract for hospital consultants in a bid to solve recruitment issues contributing to Ireland’s long healthcare waiting lists.

An estimated 900 vacant consultant posts across the country and hundreds of thousands of people on waiting lists are among the challenges facing a strained Irish healthcare system.

Under the new public-only contract, which is part of the cross-party Slaintecare reform of the health sector, consultants would be paid a salary of up to 252,000 euro a year and work a 37-hour week.

The Government has also approved the recruitment of an extra 1,000 consultants under the new contract.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that there are now 3,800 consultants in the public system, and the ratio of consultants to the population “has historically been far too low”.

“This new contract will ensure that care will be provided when patients need it most.

“Consultant decision-making on site results in reduced emergency admissions, shorter lengths of stay and more complete care plans for discharge.

He added: “This new contract will not result in an increase in working hours for consultants, but instead will focus on ensuring that these senior decision makers are present and delivering patient care when demand is highest.”

Groups representing consultants have reacted with caution to what they called “the Donnelly proposal”.

Talks had been taking place between the Department of Health, the HSE, the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) about pay and work conditions.

President of the IHCA Professor Rob Landers said that despite progress made during discussions, the minister and Government “have moved on and ended talks” with representative bodies.

“There remain a number of critically important issues that need to be addressed to ensure any proposed contract will reduce patient waiting times and address the consultant recruitment and retention crisis.

“The Donnelly proposal must stand up against international standards in order to make Ireland’s health service a place that medical and surgical specialist want to work.

“This is the lens through which our members will evaluate this proposal.”

The chairman of the Irish Medical Organisation’s consultant committee, Professor Matthew Sadlier, said: “We have concerns as to how some of these proposals can be implemented given the serious staffing issues at consultant level and will be considering this in detail.

“We will engage with our membership with a view to responding to the Department in January 2023.”