Sir, – It is unsurprising that doctors have responded angrily to a HSE memo dictating that interview applicants and newly-appointed consultants must accept the new Sláintecare contract, given that there is currently no contract or pay scale in existence (News, November 5th).
What other organisation would treat prospective employees in this way?
The primary focus of the new contract seems to be controlling the activities of consultants outside their contracted 39-hour week. This does not seem a tactic likely to attract medics to fill our 700 vacant consultant posts.
This line of communication from the HSE will only serve to worsen relations with the very generation of consultants desperately needed to deliver the proposed Sláintecare service.
– Yours, etc,
Dr STEVEN MALONEY,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.