• IMO members vote to accept Haddington Road proposals
• 67% vote in favour of the proposals
• Union welcomes the result, but warns that the HSE now has to deliver its side of the agreement

Wednesday, 26 June 2013. Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) members have voted in favour of the Haddington Road proposals. The proposals were accepted by 67% of those voting in the IMO ballot.

Speaking today, Steve Tweed, Director of Industrial Relations at the IMO, said that acceptance of the proposals was a difficult choice for IMO members to make.

He said; “Our members who are at the frontline in the health services have taken the decision to accept the Haddington Road proposals. Feedback from members has made it clear that this has only be done on the basis that the HSE and the Department of Health now deliver on their side of the agreement.

A key feature of the revised proposals was the commitment by Government to enter into negotiations on career pathways for all doctors, retaining doctors in, and attracting doctors back to, the Irish health system and the elimination of the Two Tier workforce.

A failure by Government to deliver on these promises will be seen by IMO members as a breach of the agreement and will result in a significant reaction from doctors throughout the health service.”

Mr. Tweed also warned Government that the separate, but parallel, issue of the onerous and dangerous working hours that NCHDs are still expected to work each week has to be urgently addressed; “The HSE has failed over a prolonged period of time to address this issue. IMO members are now saying in unambiguous terms, Enough is Enough. The IMO now places the HSE on notice, ‘demonstrate a determined and practical commitment to reduce the working hours of NCHDs or face the prospect of industrial action’. If the HSE fails to step up to the mark this time an industrial action ballot will commence on 8 August 2013. The patience of our NCHD members is at breaking point, no further delays by the HSE will be tolerated.”