The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has said that the new draft contract for hospital consultants drawn up this week by health service management is a retrograde step in moving towards a deal.
The IMO expressed its disappointment at the management proposals following a meeting yesterday with the independent chairman of the talks process, senior counsel Mark Connaughton.
The proposed deal offers salaries of up to €216,000, but involves longer working hours and restrictions on private practice.
The IMO's consultant leader, Seán Tierney, said: "Consultants have serious concerns about significant aspects of the employers' proposals and remain determined that many of the issues consultants wish to have tackled are addressed with equal urgency by the employer side."
He said that consultants were prepared to discuss significant changes in existing working hours.
However, Mr Tierney said that there had to be a recognition of what was achievable in the short term and of measures that would require a longer-term timescale for implementation as well as massive investment in terms of staffing, resources and discussion with other staff representative bodies.
He said that the notion of having an "around the clock" consultant presence in hospitals and extended rostering arrangements over seven days was " certainly not achievable in the very near future as suggested by the employers' side".
"It is essential that a critical mass of existing and future consultants have confidence in new contractual arrangements as, otherwise, the reforms will wither on the vine.
"Equally, it is essential that all issues, including proposals to review the eligibility regulations for patients, are explored fully and that their implementation takes place on an agreed basis. If consultants are not fully clear about the basis on which new contractual arrangements will operate, there could be little prospect of them agreeing to sign revised contracts in any meaningful numbers," Mr Tierney stated.
He said that the IMO was committed to building on real progress which had been made in earlier discussions with health service management on areas such as greater team working, the introduction of clinical directors and working hours.
Under the management's proposals, consultants would work a 39-hour week.
They would be rostered to work between 7am and 10pm on weekdays. In some specialities, management is seeking to have hospital consultants to be on call 24 hours a day.
Management has offered salary scales of €198,000-€216,000 for consultants working exclusively in public hospitals. Those consultants with limited private practice rights would earn €175,000-€190,000.
It is understood that health service management has signalled to Mr Connaughton that it is prepared to enter into discussions on its plans for reforming eligibility arrangements if the medical organisations produced credible alternatives.
The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association has said that its members would reject the current proposals if they were put to a vote.
Mr Connaughton is expected to provide a report to the parties early next week on whether he believes a basis for an agreement exists.
