Hospital consultants are expected to demand compensation of at least £700,000 as a result of the move to Tallaght Hospital, some up to £25,000 each.
The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) has defended the claim, saying the move will mean a significant loss of private practice income.
Consultants will also receive around £1,000 each as part of a £1.8 million disturbance package, as will all 1,800 staff transferring from the Meath, Adelaide and National Children's hospitals to the Tallaght Hospital, which is due to open on June 21st.
It will be another three months before psychiatric patients from St Loman's Hospital are transferred to the hospital, Mr Des Kavanagh, general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses' Association, said.
Recently a delegation of nurses found aspects of the unit unsuitable for psychiatric patients, including the lack of secure rooms for psychotic patients. These shortcomings had been brought to the attention of management a year ago, according to Mr Kavanagh, as well the danger of having coat hooks and the need to reconfigure the nursing station.
"I don't know what sort of patients they had in mind but certainly not the patients which we deal with. We told them over 12 months ago what we required," he said, adding that management had accepted their recommendations.
He said talks on a disturbance package for up to 100 psychiatric nurses transferring were ongoing, as staff moving from the other three hospitals "are employed by the Tallaght Hospital Board. We are employed by the Eastern Health Board."
He said nurses moving from St Loman's had further to travel than other employees from the city centre and under the terms of their contract were liable to be transferred to anywhere in the west Co Dublin area in the future.
About 85 hospital consultants will be transferring to Tallaght Hospital. Around 25 of these, including surgeons, anaesthetists and other high earners, will be seeking up to £25,000 from the hospital because of losses in private practice earnings. Elective work is being wound down in the three hospitals and it is expected to take a number of months before the new hospital is fully operational.
The secretary general of the IHCA, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said consultants have contractual entitlements in their present hospitals for public and private hospitals. "In the course of the transfer to Tallaght the private practice facilities and opportunities will be enormously diminished. Consultants still have to pay overheads, secretarial staff and malpractice insurance, in some cases up to £34,000 a year. The new private wing will not be open until mid1999."
Individual consultants will be expected to show management their returns indicating their income for the same period last year.
Mr Fitzpatrick said that at a meeting last week the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, had made it clear the opening date was a decision for the Tallaght Hospital board.
Mr Fitzpatrick said consultants still thought the date should be deferred. "We are very worried about problems which we expect on the eve of opening. We don't know if everything will be ready, will staff know their way around the hospital, there are concerns about nurses' staffing levels and the operating of the radiography equipment which will be moved from the Meath Hospital."