Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has defended the implementation of the Public Only Consultant Contract (POCC) after criticism from the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA).
Its President Professor Gabrielle Colleran had hit out at what she said was a rush to push consultants to work weekends, without providing adequate staff to ensure that patients are given proper care and waiting lists are dealt with at the same time.
The knock-on effect of working weekends would result in longer waiting lists, she said.
Recent figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund show that one million people are waiting on hospital appointments, while over a quarter of a million people are waiting for their first appointment across primary and community health care.
When I offered to work weekends, after signing the public-only contract, I was told that there were not sufficient staff to replace me on a Monday if I did,” Prof Colleran told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
“If I am told, as we were told in Holles Street last week, the minister has dictated everyone on a POC has to be doing Saturday work.
“We don’t care if you’re off on Monday. We don’t care if it costs way more in agency staff. We don’t care if less patients are seen. That’s the message that has been directly communicated to us from the top.”
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Prof Colleran, a paediatric radiologist, said she provides emergency care for four hospitals on Saturdays but does not run outpatient care.
Patients who see a consultant at weekends should expect to receive full treatment, she said, but these services are not in place at weekends.
“If you come to see someone in clinic on a Saturday, you should expect that if you need bloods done, there’s a phlebotomist there, that if you need to have an echo, that there’s a cardiac technician.
“That it is as productive, that you’re not going to be coming back twice or three times.
“At the moment, that’s not in place. So all of us are agreed that this is a good thing once it’s done right.
“Where we have an issue is that the implementation of this, in this rushed fashion, which is very much driven by the need for politics to show a return for having invested in this contract.
“I don’t want a soft Saturday – that means I’m off Monday and my waiting lists are growing because I’ve worked really hard to have a really short waiting list for my patients in Holles Street.”
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Minister MacNeill insisted that enormous improvements have been seen in hospitals as a result of the POCC.
It had improved patient safety, she said, including through earlier discharges and lower trolley numbers.
There is an agreement with health unions to work five days over seven, along with the POCC, Ms MacNeill said.
The healthcare system will not change overnight, but in 10 years’ time, this will seem normal, she added.
On the issue of rising waiting lists, HSE Chief Executive Anne O’Connor said the health service was seeing more patients than before.
With the lists, she said, people need to be careful, because there are triage systems in place where patients are prioritised and reviewed.
Ms O’Connor said that waiting lists can often be a safe way to manage patients, adding that the issue is the length of time that people are on lists.
On HSE finances, she said, the executive was 4% over budget by the end of July – amounting to €580 million – and a lot of work was going on in terms of managing it.
Prof Colleran said there had been a record spend on health, without the return.