• No change to doctors’ contractual provisions has been made after discussions with HSE

 

• ‘Extended services cannot be introduced on the basis of robbing Peter to pay Paul where there may be a reduction in services on other days’

 

Tuesday June 24, 2025. The Chair of the Consultants’ Committee of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has warned that weekend rostering alone will not solve the trolley crisis and the long patient delays that are a feature of our hospitals.

 

Professor Matthew Sadlier added that no doctor rostering can take place outside of existing contractual arrangements, after the IMO was involved in discussions with the HSE on weekend work.

 

The IMO confirmed that there has been no change to the contractual provisions already in place; consultants on the new public-only contract may be rostered over six days from Monday to Saturday. Meanwhile, those on older contracts may be rostered in line with their contractual provisions.

 

Professor Sadlier said: “While we recognise the need to extend services to the weekend, the presence of staff on these days will not be enough to alleviate the long delays for patients. We desperately need to see wholescale recruitment of staff and the elimination of the effective recruitment freeze. We also need greater capacity in acute beds so that all patients, once deemed ill enough to be admitted, can be moved to an appropriate bed and treated in the right setting.”

 

Professor Sadlier warned that weekend rostering cannot come at the expense of weekday treatment. “The IMO is not ideologically opposed to extended services, but their introduction cannot be based on robbing Peter to pay Paul where there may be a reduction in services on other days. If the HSE and Government want extended services, they must invest in workforce and capacity and ensure that all services are safe for those working in them and using them.”