IMO members may escalate strike after Martin comments

Members of the Irish Medical Organisation have said they may join industrial action by public health doctors after being angered by comments from the Minister for Health today.

Passengers arriving in Singapore from Hong Kong

Mr Micheál Martin criticised the strike by public health doctors claiming it was putting people's health at risk and said the action showed a lack of responsibility.

His comments outraged IMO members and consultants, GPs and junior doctors are all now ready to join their colleagues' industrial action.

The news comes after a day of confusion during which the Department of Health has listed the Chinese woman admitted to a Dublin hospital this week with SARS-like symptoms as a "suspect" case.

A Department spokeswoman told ireland.comthis follows a "final determination" from the Eastern Regional Health Authority this afternoon, ending the confusion caused by the differing reports emerging from the Department and the ERHA over the status of the woman.

On Wednesday, the ERHA issued a statement saying that the woman was given the all-clear. "All tests have been carried out and are negative. There is no evidence that it is SARS," the ERHA statement said.

This morning, however, Dr John Devlin, medical officer at the Department of Health, said the case was being treated as a "probable" case of SARS. X-ray reports of the lower chest appear to confirm this, he said.

"On the basis of the preliminary information that we had in relation to the clinical, radiological and other tests that were carried done . . . the initial response, in consultation with the World Health Organisation, is that this is a probable case," he said. "But they know, and we know, that you can only finally and fully determine that when all the evidence is in, and we're still missing that piece of final evidence."

However, an ERHA spokeswoman insisted this afternoon that there was "no specific x-ray" being awaited. She insisted the woman was a "suspect" case and was improving and it was hoped she would be released next week from Cherry Orchard Hospital in Ballyfermot, where she is being treated in isolation.

Earlier, Dr Jim Kiely, chief medical officer at the Department of Health, insisted there was no attempt to mislead the public over SARS. He said negative blood test results announced earlier this week did not rule out the possibility the woman has SARS.

"There are definitions of suspect and probable cases of SARS which are clinical and radiological. There are no definitive blood tests for SARS," he said.

"Negative blood tests simply mean you have out ruled a whole range of other viruses, such as influenza and para-influenza," he said. "A negative blood test does not necessarily mean that a patient does not have SARS."

The woman presented herself at the St Vincent's Hospital A&E department in Dublin last Friday, but was sent back to the hostel where she lives in Dun Laoghaire and told to wear a surgical mask. She had recently returned to Ireland from Guangdong province, which is on the WHO list of risk locations.

Dr Kiely dismissed claims that the WHO guidelines had been breached in this case. "The guidelines are just that - guidelines," he said. "It depends on the view the individual clinician".

The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said on Wednesday the test results proved that the treatment course followed by the hospital was correct. He admitted there had been a breakdown in communication between the Department of Health and EHRA but stressed that the important thing was that the treatment procedures followed were correct.

As of today, a total of 4439 cases of SARS with 263 deaths have been reported to the WHO from 26 countries.