Dr. Ray Walley – “this agreement won’t stop the exodus of Doctors from our health system”

8.25pm Thursday 4th May 2015. The Council of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) met this evening (4th June) to consider the terms of the new Lansdowne Road Agreement on public sector pay restoration.

The IMO will convene a ballot of members affected by the proposals and the Council has this evening voted unanimously to recommend rejection of the Agreement.

Speaking tonight, Dr Ray Walley, IMO President, said; “IMO Council had no option but to vote to reject the Agreement and to recommend rejection by our members. This agreement does nothing to address the real crisis in our health services – the inability of the system to retain existing doctors and attract new doctors. Our highly trained doctors are much sought after and valued by other countries where they are resourced to carry out the work for which they have spent long years training. This is bad for the future of our services but, more importantly, it is creating serious patient safety issues with long waiting lists and insufficient resources to treat patients. The IMO has continuously warned Government of the inevitable consequences of the basic unfairness of two tier pay and yet even now, when we have a consultant vacancies all over the country, Government still refuse to address the fundamental principle of equal pay for equal work. The IMO and its members have worked with Government to address these issues through the recent new entrant consultant agreement, but even this is being blocked and hampered by Government Departments and doctors have no confidence that anything has changed.“

IMO Council also expressed concern that, notwithstanding the need to secure economic growth, this Agreement does not treat all workers fairly. Dr. Walley said that while it was right and proper that there should be an emphaisis on the lower paid it is equally important that all workers in the health services, who have given so much in recent years, receive acknowledgement for their efforts.

Dr Walley said “What we all want is a health service that delivers for patients, but to get that Government must address the critical issues that are effectively forcing doctors away. If we truly want to reform our services we need to keep our doctors in Ireland to deliver that service.”

Ends