The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has accused the Government of blaming health workers for the crisis in the health system rather than trying to bring about change.
Speaking at the organisation's annual conference today, IMO chief executive George McNeice said health workers were being "unfairly blamed" for the failings of the health system despite their efforts to help the Government come up with a solution.
"No successful outcome will be achieved unless what we say is listened to. Engage with us and we will continue to be as committed to the change process as anyone," he said.
"The strategy of the Government seems to be merely to blame doctors instead of leading a change process," Mr McNeice said. "This will achieve nothing."
The chief executive of the union, which represents 6,000 people, said it was hard to see a resolution to the accident and emergency crisis without addressing bed capacity, adding: "In that context, it is invidious for the State to provide tax breaks to private hospitals when taxes foregone could have been invested in public hospital facilities where they are urgently needed."
Mr McNeice said the IMO had put forward a proposal to introduce an interim out-of-hours service. He claimed the HSE had not yet made a serious attempt to introduce a properly resourced out-of-hours service for public health, describing this as "hugely worrying" in light of recent health threats such as SARS and bird flu.
Mr McNeice said the organisation's vision for a new model of working for non consultant hospital doctors involved allowing them to undertake training and education while still undertaking the full range of clinical duties.
"Locum provision is essential in hospitals if NCHDs are to optimise their training opportunities and for services to continue in their absence. I cannot stand over the practice of calling NCHDs back from their annual leave to cover nights on call because management has not looked for replacements. This has resulted in NCHDs working 48 hours and more during their holidays," he said.
The IMO also criticised the threat to withhold pay increases as a way to force public health workers to participate in what it described as "an unworkable and under resourced out-of-hours service".
