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The nation’s leading doctors union has supported the initiative of 60 public health specialists to vote to allow industrial action up to and including the strike, if the promised consultant rank is not awarded.
Public health physicians have previously warned that they will vote with members on the issue if no progress is made.
The Irish Medical Organization (IMO) said that Ireland is an outlier in the sense that it does not employ these doctors as consultants even though they are trained to work at the consultant level and are on the Medical Council register as specialists like everyone else. other fellow consultants.
The IMO annual meeting passed a special resolution in support of public health physicians and called on the government to act.
The unexpected move came after a “deeply disappointing” meeting earlier in the day between IMO and the Health Department on the issue.
IMO President Dr. Padraig McGarry told the General Shareholders’ Meeting that while only 60 public health physicians were involved in this issue, the organization’s 6,000 members supported his campaign, saying: “In the midst of a global pandemic, the government does not respect our public health leaders and discourages the next generation from working here even while other countries are trying to recruit them.
“This Government praises public health doctors on the one hand and dismisses their just demand for a consultant contract on the other. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the vital role our public health colleagues play in our healthcare service. Their demand for a consultant contract is fair and urgent and all the doctors support them in their campaign to get it. “
IMO Public Health Committee Chair Dr. Ina Kelly said that today’s meeting with the Health Department had made the situation worse: “We went hoping to make progress, but we have left more frustrated and angry.
“The Department believes it can delay this issue and link it to future structures and reforms. We will certainly discuss and participate in much-needed reforms, but we will do so as consultants and not before we have secured that long-awaited respect. While we remain available for talks, it appears that we have no choice but to proceed with our vote before the end of November, which was already agreed at a meeting of IMO members.
“No doctor wants to take industrial action, but such is the disappointment, frustration and low morale of our members in the face of the lack of respect from the Government that we expect to receive an overwhelming mandate. The Public Health Committee will hold a series of meetings in the coming weeks to plan the vote and any industrial action that we hope is not necessary but for which we must plan. “
Dr. McGarry said that public health physicians deserved much more from the government.
“Our public health physicians are not only exhausted from the long hours that keep the nation safe, but they are also angry and frustrated at the utter disrespect that the Government has shown them. We have not seen progress on the part of the Government and in fact we are going backwards ”.
Online editors
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