1. This meeting requires that the contribution towards supporting consultants in maintaining their competencies through CME and CPD activities that are provided for in each individual contract be fully available to be utilised for its intended purpose.

Proposer: Dr Seamus Healy                                         Seconder: Dr Tony Healy

Status: Carried

2. The IMO welcomes recent comments of the Assistant Secretary for HR in the Department of Health at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health on 13^th December when the individual outlined the HSE has responsibility for ensuring consultant compliance with their contracts.  The IMO further welcomes the Statement referencing the DG of the HSE issuing clear instruction to relevant health sector management reaffirming the need for individual hospitals and hospital groups to ensure full compliance with the terms of consultant contracts. The IMO calls on the Director General to reaffirm the need for hospitals and hospital groups to ensure full compliance with the financial terms of the consultant contract.

Proposer: Dr Mick Molloy                                             Seconder: Dr Matthew Sadlier

Status: Carried

3. In view of recent comments from the Minister for Health stating his Department “has been working closely with the HSE to find a solution to ensure more effective monitoring of compliance by consultants and that compliance is achieved in respect of all consultants” the IMO calls on the Minister to also work closely with the IMO to ensure both the Minister and the HSE comply with their respective obligations to those same contracts with particular emphasis on the salaries freely negotiated by their representatives at the time under the auspices of Mr Mark Connaughton.

Proposer: Dr Mick Molloy                                             Seconder: Dr Matthew Sadlier

Status: Carried

4. The IMO condemns the Government and the HSE for effectively forcing individual consultants to resort to legal action in the High Court in order to have their contractual rights under the 2008 Consultant Common Contract upheld. 

Proposer: Dr Peadar Gilligan                                       Seconder: Prof Trevor Duffy

Status: Carried

5. The 2008 Consultant Common Contract was negotiated and entered into freely by both parties (the State and individual Consultants) and it is unacceptable that one party, the State, fails to meet its obligations under that negotiated contract.  The current legal action in the High Court on the State’s breach of the contract is a clear demonstration by the State that it does not honour negotiated contracts.

Proposer: IMO Consultants Committee

Status: Carried

6. The unilateral breach by the State of the 2008 Consultant Common Contract has directly led to the crisis in consultant recruitment in our public health services whereby 500 Consultant posts remain unfilled, with many advertised posts attracting few or no applicants. 

Proposer: IMO Consultants Committee

Status: Carried as amended

Amendment: The unilateral breach by the State of the 2008 Consultant Common Contract has contributed to the crisis in consultant recruitment in our public health services whereby 500 Consultant posts remain unfilled, with many advertised posts attracting few or no applicants. 

7. The IMO calls on the Department of Health to carefully analyse all of the issues that could potentially arise should private practice be stripped out of public hospitals as recommended in the Slaintecare report, including issues relating to hospital financing, capacity, contractual arrangements and Consultant recruitment and retention. The IMO further calls on the Department to ensure that policy in this regard is based on valid evidence and not political expediency.

Proposer: IMO Consultants Committee

Status: Carried as Amended

Amendment: The IMO calls on the Department of Health to carefully analyse all of the issues that could potentially arise should private practice be stripped out of public hospitals as recommended in the Slaintecare report, including issues relating to hospital financing, capacity, contractual arrangements and Consultant recruitment and retention and appropriate continuity of care for the insured population. The IMO further calls on the Department to ensure that policy in this regard is based on valid evidence and not political expediency.

8. The IMO calls on the Department of Health and the HSE to acknowledge that it is wholly inappropriate for one site or hospital group to offer consultants terms and conditions that are not in line with nationally agreed contracts.  Given the multiplicity of issues involved in the operation of the current consultant contract, only national negotiations will be sufficient to address and resolve all matters.  The IMO is ready to engage with the Department of Health and the HSE in this regard but pending those negotiations it is incumbent on all hospitals to offer only the current common consultants contract to prospective consultant employees.

Proposer: IMO Consultants Committee

Status: Carried

9. In the context of the unprecedented number of Consultant posts that have not been filled, or are not filled on a permanent basis, the IMO calls on the HSE, the DOH and  DOF / DPER to engage, as a matter of urgency, with the IMO to devise terms and conditions that will  make Consultant posts in the Irish public health service an attractive option.

Proposer: IMO Consultants Committee

Status: Carried

10. This meeting notes the following figures:

Of the 84 Consultant posts that were advertised and closed in 2016 by the Public Appointment Service (PAS), one-quarter (22) received just one application, while another quarter (21) received just two applications. One-in-ten (8) advertisements were closed without a single application being lodged for the position. The PAS was unable to identify a suitable applicant for 22 of these 84 posts. These statistics demonstrate that 60% of advertisements for Consultant posts in the Irish health service last year attracted two applications or fewer. In a highly competitive global market, Consultant posts in the Irish public health system simply do not attract the number of applicant that one mightexpect.

In 2017 of 38 Consultant positions advertised by the PAS, 16 have been open for over twelve months. Additionally, 128 Consultant positions are currently being occupied by practitioners who are not on the specialist register.

The IMO calls on those occupying positions of authority in health service management, especially the Minister for Health, to take urgent steps to address this situation.

Proposer: IMO Consultants Committee

Status: Carried

11. The impact of the unilateral thirty percent salary reduction imposed on new entrant Consultants in 2012 continues to reverberate through the system and act as a barrier to consultant recruitment. This meeting calls on the system to engage with the IMO with a view to ensuring parity between consultants doing the same work. Doctors should not be treated less favourably than other groups of new entrants.

Proposer: IMO Consultants Committee

Status: Carried as amended

Amendement

The impact of the unilateral thirty percent salary reduction imposed on new entrant Consultants in 2012 continues to reverberate through the Department of Health and act as a barrier to consultant recruitment. This meeting calls on the system to engage with the IMO with a view to ensuring parity between consultants doing the same work. Doctors should not be treated less favourably than other groups of new entrants.

12. Given the predicted increase in healthcare demand as outlined in the Health Service Capacity Review the IMO calls on the Government to immediately frontload the system with bed capacity so as to reach the minimum requirement of an additional 2,590 beds within the shortest timeframe possible.  To do otherwise will ensure that the number of additional beds required by 2031 will be 7,150.

Proposer: IMO Consultants Committee

Status: Carried

13. The IMO calls on the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Minister for Health to advance legislative proposals with supporting regulations towards reforming Tort (Medical Negligence) Law.  Less adversarial measures have been successful in other areas of Irish Tort Law and in other jurisdictions.  Current practice is adversely affecting patient choice outside public provision and medical recruitment into certain specialties.

Proposer: Dr Martin Mahon                                        Seconder: Dr Matthew Sadlier

Status: Carried