A national forum which would develop a health strategy for the State has been recommended by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO).
The organisation's chief executive, Mr George McNeice, said the forum should consist of all stakeholder groups. He was speaking yesterday after the publication in Dublin of Turning Vision into Reality, an IMO survey of the medical profession's concerns and needs.
The IMO has recommended the development of a five-year health plan with "ring-fenced funding". Such a plan, it said, should take account of medical inflation, patient expectations and demographic changes.
More immediately, the IMO has called for the creation of 1,000 consultant posts. It has also called for the "early introduction" of a 48-hour working week for non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) and has proposed that protected time for training be included in those hours.
Dr Cormac Macnamara, a former IMO president, said if junior doctors were encouraged to follow a career path in this State, fewer doctors would emigrate. He said 3,000 NCHDs were working abroad and should be encouraged to come home.
The IMO has also sought a review of medical school intake, taking into account those who opt out of medicine.
It also wants the workload of GPs reviewed immediately. Dr James Reilly, chairman of its GP committee, told a press conference there was a serious threat to people living in rural areas because their GPs were in the 45-55 age-group and would have no obvious replacements when they retired. The IMO president, Dr Liam Lynch, said the organisation would reject any moves which would bring more people into the medical-card scheme on a non-means-test basis. He said doctors wanted a review of medical-card eligibility limits to include more people at the lower end of the income threshold.
Asked about reports that IMO members might withdraw their services from asylum-seekers, Dr Lynch said that was never an option. He said the medical-card scheme was overloaded but doctors would never discriminate against one group of people in the system. Speaking at the publication of the survey, IMO officials pointed to increasing levels of litigation and said they would not support the introduction of an enterprise liability scheme which would not protect the interests of doctors.
The organisation has called for the establishment of a group to review the legal system and make recommendations for a system which would balance the rights of doctors and patients.
The Irish Medical Organisation will soon establish a non-Irish doctors' group which will offer support and advice to all non-national doctors. Dr Macnamara said non-nationals faced discrimination and racism in a number of subtle ways, inclu ding a lack of respect and a lower standard of accommodation.
