Hospital consultants in future should work a 37-hour week, according to proposals put forward late last night by the independent chairman of the talks on a new contract.
In his final report, senior counsel Mark Connaughton also proposed that consultants should be rostered to work in hospitals from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday.
He suggested that there should be provision in a new contract to have consultants on duty in hospitals on both Saturdays and Sundays for five hours each day.
Mr Connaughton said he had been unable to secure agreement on how new pay scales under a new contract would be determined.
He said that should the parties want to submit the question of remuneration to the Review Body on Higher Remuneration, which examines top level pay in the public sector, that " it would be imperative that such review could be effected expeditiously as all matters should be disposed of by year end".
Health service management had proposed that consultants in future should only be allowed to carry out private work in either public or co-located private facilities.
However, Mr Connaughton recommended that the total ban on consultants being allowed to treat fee-paying patients in off-site private hospitals should be dropped in special cases.
"Ultimately, it is for the HSE to determine the structure of posts but I recommend that there should be provision, in exceptional situations, for a third category of post, permitting off-site private practice.
"Even if used sparingly, this would afford considerable flexibility to the Health Service Executive in ensuring the recruitment of consultants who might otherwise be lost to the health service".
He said there should be a facility for consultants to make application to transfer between the two types of contracts proposed by management, one allowing consultants some limited form of private practice and the other stipulating that they work exclusively in public hospitals. He said a third- party procedure should be available, if necessary.
Mr Connaughton also recommended that there should be discussions between health service management and medical organisations on the extension of service of consultants up to and including the provision of 24-hour cover in some areas.
The chairman proposed that consultants should only be allowed to carry out a maximum of 20 per cent private work in hospitals.
However, he recommended that there should be a three-year lead-in time for the full implementation of the 80:20 public/private mix for existing consultants who agreed to transfer to the new contract offered.
On the proposed ban put forward by management on consultants charging fees for patients in emergency departments, Mr Connaughton proposed that "employers should immediately meet with representatives of those consultants and if an equitable solution cannot be achieved, the matter should be referred to an agreed third party for determination".
