The Irish Medical Organisation is to seek an urgent meeting with management at the Mercy University Hospital in Cork to clarify proposals by the hospital to stop paying overtime to non-consultant hospital doctors.
According to the IMO, about 80 NCHDs at the Mercy were told by hospital management in July that it was introducing a new system where it would not pay them for consultant-approved rostered overtime above their regular scheduled 39-hour week.
The move by the MUH management was introduced as part of a cost-containment plan for the hospital but, according to the IMO spokesman, it is a direct breach of the hospital's own custom and practice with the NCHDs at the Mercy and a HSE agreement with the IMO.
An IMO spokeswoman said: "It is a unilateral action by hospital management which involves a fundamental change in working conditions of NCHDs. It is being done without any consultation whatsoever with our members so it is very serious for them.
"It is also in direct breach of an agreement between the HSE and the IMO brokered last year with the help of the Labour Relations Commission whereby a doctor working consultant-approved overtime must be paid for that work."
A study of Irish hospitals in 2000 estimated that NCHDs worked on average 77 hours a week, with a higher average in some specialities such as surgery. There NCHDs average 89 hours a week while in obstetrics and gynaecology, they work 83 hours a week.
According to the IMO spokeswoman, the move is entirely unworkable as it means that a doctor who is scheduled to work in theatre from 9am-5pm and who usually comes in two hours earlier to prepare for theatre will now be be no longer paid to do so.
Similarly, a doctor involved in surgery on a Friday evening will be expected to check up on their patient later that night or on Saturday morning without being paid. The spokeswoman said it was playing on the good will of doctors to keep patient care going.
She said NCHDs at the Mercy did not expect to get paid next week for consultant-approved overtime but the IMO had advised them to keep records of all hours work to support their claims for overtime payment.
NCHDs had said the MUH had indicated to IMO representatives at a meeting attended by more than 30 doctors on Tuesday that they would be willing to embark on industrial action if management did not agree to a meeting.
However, MUH chief executive Pat Madden said hospital management had agreed to meet the IMO next week. He stressed there was no question of hospital management seeking to breach any nationally negotiated agreements. "There is no question of us breaching any agreements regarding payment for consultant-approved overtime," Mr Madden said, "but there is other overtime above and beyond this which we want to address."
