New organisation to represent medical and dental consultants

A new organisation to represent medical and dental consultants in Ireland has been announced.

The Medical and Dental Consultants Association will seek to represent members working both in private hospitals and in the public system.

The establishment of the association stems from unhappiness among medical specialists particularly over the State’s takeover of the country’s private hospitals ahead of an expected surge of Covid-19 patients last spring.

The association said on Tuesday that it hoped to have 300 - 500 members in the near future.

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It is planning to meet with private hospitals and will seek a meeting with the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.

There are already two organisations representing medical specialists, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association and the Irish Medical Organisation.

The new association said in a note on its website that it began as “a loose group of like-minded doctors in April 2020”.

"The Private Hospitals Association (PHA), at the time of the anticipated Covid pandemic, signed up unilaterally to a HSE government contract without full-time private practice consultants being meaningfully involved in the decision-making process. Likewise, the medical representative associations did not become, in our opinion, robustly involved on behalf of full-time private practice doctors.

“While generally initially welcomed, as a means of addressing urgent bed capacity issues in the public hospitals, it became immediately apparent that consultants were unexpectedly placed under enormous state pressure to sign up to a public- only(type ) A contract preventing maintenance of continuity of patient care. This had particular relevance for those patients normally seen in the outpatient office setting. Access to inpatient care was hindered by temporary withdrawal of State indemnity. Doctors in many cases declined to sign, opting to provide pro bono care to the highest medical and ethical standards.”

The association said its main objectives would be to “ represent the professional character and professional interests of medical and dental consultants and to provide them with all relevant services to the development of a caring and effective health service, putting the patients at the centre of its activities”.

It said it would aim to “promote, and protect by all lawful means, the rights and interests of medical and dental consultants and to negotiate with relevant insurance bodies, private hospitals and relevant State entities and key stakeholders on behalf of members”.