‘Brazen’ consultants rile Harris
THE Health Minister has described the actions of consultants who are not fulfilling their contracted hours with public patients in favour of treating private patients as ‘brazen, immoral and unfair’.
More than 43,500 public patients awaiting a procedure lost out to private patients in our public health system over the past two years, an RTÉ Investigates programme revealed on Tuesday.
Consultants are contractually obliged and paid to work 37-39 hours per week in the public system, but according to the programme, a number of consultants are not fulfilling these hours and are instead seeing a greater number of private patients.
In one case, a consultant was found to work less than 13 hours per week with public patients. This consultant was contracted to work 37 hours publicly and in an eight-week period was paid an estimated €14,000 for work he did not carry out for public patients.
Responding to the revelations, Minister for Health Simon Harris yesterday said he had been informed that the HSE will launch an investigation into the matter.
‘Some consultants behaving this way lets down a lot of their colleagues, who often work well beyond the hours required under their contracts,’ Mr Harris said.
‘We cannot have a situation where people are paid for hours and don’t do them. This would not be tolerated for nurses or other grades in the service. I have been informed by the HSE that investigations will be launched.’
He added: ‘It is the responsibility of management to make sure these contracts are being enforced. I have asked the HSE to ensure more robust measures are in place in 2018.’
The HSE said it ‘expects all consultants to adhere to the requirements of their contract’, and that ‘not doing so is unacceptable’.
Consultants earn €113,000 to €229,000 excluding allowances.
Responding to the findings, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association claimed that the majority of consultants are working beyond their contracted hours. The Irish Medical Organisation said the RTÉ report does not accurately reflect the working times for the vast majority of consultants.