Hospitals across the country could be faced with massive disruption with doctors to back back plans for a ballot for industrial action over pay and recruitment issues.
According to the Irish Times, members of Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) will be urged from leadership to support a vote on industrial action up to and including strike action over lower pay rates.
The IMO said it was seeking an immediate end to what it described as “the unjustifiable pay inequality faced by consultants which is based solely on when they were appointed”.
It also wants an immediate increase in the number of consultants employed in the health system in line with recommended ratios.
Former IMO president and hospital consultant Dr Matt Sadlier said the health service was “coming apart and doctors could not stand idly by”.
He said there was a palpable groundswell of anger amongst the medical profession at the refusal of the Government to end the pay inequality problem.
The IMO said the Government had failed at talks last month to put forward any proposals to address the two-tier pay system.
The IMO maintained the pay inequality issue was directly linked to the failure of hospitals to fill permanently up to 500 consultant posts.
Dr Sadlier said: “The Government is ignoring the dire implications of the consultant recruitment crisis. Yesterday, hospitals recorded the second-highest ever level of patients on trolleys and we currently have 770,000 patients on hospital waiting lists. There are a further 165,000 waiting for vital imaging services such as MRI; this is against the backdrop of a health service that has the lowest number of specialists per capita in the EU.
“We expect the consultant and non-consultant hospital doctor members of the union to agree to hold a ballot for industrial action this evening to send this Government the strongest signal yet that this situation is intolerable and cannot be allowed to continue.”
