THE HEALTH Service Executive has still not received formal sanction from the Department of Health to pay higher salaries to hospital consultants who signed up to new contracts.
However, the chief executive of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, said yesterday he had received no indication from the department that there was a “freeze” on the new consultants’ contracts.
About 80 per cent of consultants have signed up for the revised contracts in recent months. The contract, which took four years to negotiate, will cost about €140 million to implement this year.
Minister for Health Mary Harney approved the payment of the higher salaries in recent weeks after a verification process was carried out to ensure consultants were working the terms and conditions laid down under their new contracts.
However, a spokesman for the Minister confirmed last evening that formal sanction had not yet been issued to the HSE to allow it to make these higher payments to consultants.
He added that all aspects of departmental spending, as in all Government departments, are now being analysed in the context of the emergency budget in April.
This could be taken to mean that the HSE won’t get the go-ahead to pay higher salaries of up to €240,000 a year to consultants until after the budget. It also remains to be seen whether non-core pay elements of the new contract are hit in the budget.
Meanwhile, the HSE met health unions last night in a bid to agree contingency plans for next Monday, when a national day of strike action by public sector employees is planned by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Dave Hughes of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation said the HSE was told emergency departments and all essential nursing services will be provided on the day.