Doctors serving the State's prisons may resign their posts en masse after what they said was an "inflammatory" move by the Irish Prison Service, which today called in doctors from the Defence Forces to treat sick prisoners.
The doctors have been asked to treat prisoners who are in need of "urgent medical attention", the Irish Prison Service said. It said the Defence Forces doctors would be made available to all places of detention under the Irish Prison Service's remit.
Prisoners have not had access to doctors' services for two weeks due to an industrial dispute by prison doctors over a pay claim. The number of prisoners being transported to hospital A&E units has also increased significantly, putting strain on prison resources.
A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service said that it was left with "no option" but to seek the assistance of the Defence Force doctors because of the current crisis in healthcare provision in the prisons which was "putting prisoners lives at risk".
"Particular difficulties have arisen in ensuring doctor services for prisoners requiring detoxification treatment and prisoners requiring admission to psychiatric facilities," the spokesman said.
Mr Sean Aylward, director general of the Irish Prison Service, commended the healthcare and other staff in the prisons for their "professionalism and care for prisoners in very difficult circumstances" since the strike by doctors began on May 4th.
A total of 25 doctors are involved in the dispute, three of them full-time and the rest part-time.
The Prison Service said the full-time doctors are paid an annual salary of €95,000 and that they are seeking an increase to €130,000. The part-time doctors are paid on a pro-rata basis.
However, the Prison Service wants guarantees on the number of hours the part-time doctors will be available to treat prisoners.
"The refusal of the Irish Medical Organisation to take up our offer of proceeding to third party adjudication of their pay claim has created a healthcare crisis for prisoners and put the security of our prisons at risk," Mr Aylward said.
"The Defence Forces' doctors are being made available solely for the purpose of relieving prisoners' suffering and distress which has been steadily increasing since the commencement of the IMO strike action."
The Prison Service said its offer to move immediately to third party arbitration - and to be bound by whatever recommendation emerges - still stands in the interest of bringing an early end to the IMO dispute.
The IMO said it will hold a national meeting of prison doctor members next Wednesday to consider what it described as the "unprecedented move" by the Prison Service.
"In light of this unprecedented and inflammatory move by the Irish Prison Service, it is increasingly likely that a decision will be made by the Prisons Doctors to resign en masse from the prison medical services," the IMO said in a statement this afternoon.
"It is remarkable that the sole response by the Irish Prison Service has been to bring in army doctors and that there has been no move to develop meaningful proposals aimed at bringing about a resolution of this dispute," said Dr Hugh Gallagher, spokesman for the prison doctors.
"It is highly unfair on the army doctors to be called in by the prison authorities in view of the limited experience they have of the specialised duties that prison doctors are expected to undertake normally."
Dr Martin Daly, chairman of the IMO's GP committee, said: "This extraordinary escalation of the dispute by the Irish Prison Service clearly demonstrates that there is no interest on the part of the Irish Prison Service to provide a properly resourced medical service to prisoners."
The IMO statement did not address questions from ireland.comabout the nature of the pay claim.