Over 600 hospital consultants in the Irish Medical Organisation still plan to strike in the next fortnight, despite the decision of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) to defer its industrial action.
On Saturday the association said that, following legal advice, it would join the Government in taking legal action against the British insurer, the Medical Defence Union (MDU). The MDU has withdrawn cover from 30 consultants here, mainly obstetricians, leaving them potentially open to multimillion euro malpractice claims.
The MDU position is that since the State introduced an indemnity scheme for senior doctors last year, the Government should meet the cost of any historic liabilities which have yet to come to court. The Government rejects this saying these are the responsibility of the MDU. It said the costs could run to €400 million.
In a statement, IHCA president Josh Keaveny said on Saturday: "The greater share of the blame for this dispute over medical indemnity lies with the Medical Defence Union. If no patient and no consultant is left uncovered for past incidents, then a major obstacle between the Department of Health and the IHCA will have been removed.
"This week, the department gave the clear assurances which patients, their families and doctors need. We look forward to working with the Tánaiste, the Department of Health and other agencies in bringing about the reforms which should give patients the health system they need and deserve."
Minister for Health Mary Harney welcomed the decision of the IHCA, which represents about 1,500 consultants. "I hope the IMO will reflect and that they too will call off their industrial action," she said. "The only people who will suffer in any industrial action are sick people."
However, Fintan Hourihan, industrial relations officer with the Irish Medical Organisation, said yesterday that nothing had changed since Thursday, when it had decided to go ahead with the strike, to give his members any reason to change their plans.
He said his organisation was seeking a meeting with the Minister this week. "Like the IHCA we received three letters, one from the Department of Health, one from the Taoiseach's office and one from the Cabinet, but our legal advice was that the assurances did not meet our requirements. There was nothing new in them."
The 670 members of the organisation would go ahead with indefinite strike action from March 14th, affecting every hospital in the State, he said. Members were represented in every medical speciality, he said. "One of the things we now have to consider is asking members of other organisations not to do the work that our members would ordinarily do."
Hospital doctors in the Irish Medical Organisation would be instructed not to carry out work ordinarily done by striking colleagues.
