The independent chairman of the talks on a new contract for hospital consultants has said there is no point in continuing discussions in their current form if the parties adhere to their current rigid positions.
In a confidential letter sent yesterday to doctors' representatives and health service management, senior counsel Mark Connaughton said that he was not satisfied that either side was blameless for the current impasse.
The Irish Times revealed earlier this week that talks on a new contract for consultants - one of the key elements of the Government's overall healthcare reforms - were on the brink of collapse.
The negotiations, which only recommenced last month, are virtually deadlocked once more over the issue of whether the Health Service Executive should again begin approving consultant posts that would allow doctors to treat fee-paying patients in private hospitals - the so-called category II contracts.
The parties have not begun discussing proposals put forward by management for a new contract that would see consultants work, largely, in the public sector as salaried employees. A range of contract options, mooted by management, have yet to be formally tabled.
Mr Connaughton, in his letter, said the consultant bodies clearly took the view that compromise proposals, which allowed the talks to resume, required management to approve approximately the same number of category II posts as the average for previous years. He said the employers believed the compromise proposals required only a limited number of such appointments during the period of negotiations and that discussions on the reclassification of positions approved earlier this year would be dealt with in the context of an overall agreement.
"There is no point in continuing discussions in the current form if the parties adhere to their present rigid positions. I must acknowledge that some flexibility was shown on the management side by willingness, in the context of embarking on substantive negotiations, to recommence category II proposals on a date earlier than the date on which the proposals were accepted on all sides," Mr Connaughton stated.
He said it was clear that all sides considered that this issue was "fundamental". However, he said that he disagreed.
"The fundamental issue to be addressed is the future role of consultants within the health service. In this regard management has tabled a proposal and both consultant organisations have hinted that they have clear -cut positions on all of the issues that have been raised. It is regrettable that the public at large has been deprived of the benefits of a full debate between the parties on this issue and I am not satisfied that either party is blameless in this regard," he said.
Mr Connaughton said he could see no benefit at present in arranging further plenary sessions between the parties unless invited to do so.
