New hospital consultants’ contract to include weekend work

The Cabinet will on Wednesday be asked to approve a proposed new contract offer for hospital consultants after talks were concluded between the Department of Health and doctors’ organisations.

The contract will see a basic annual salary range of between €210,000 and €252,000 offered to new entrants and to all existing consultants, who will be able to change from their existing contracts.

However, there will also be payments for continuing medical education, an innovation fund, overtime and premium and on-call allowances. Along with valuable public sector pension rights, these bring the value of the offer to as much as €300,000 a year for senior doctors, according to two people with knowledge of the issue.

If agreed by the Cabinet, and subsequently endorsed by the doctors’ representative organisations, the contract is expected to unlock a wave of recruitment of consultants, considered essential to the Sláintecare plan for reforming the health service.

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Private patients

The contract will prevent consultants from treating private patients in public hospitals, and require them to be available for a 37-hour week between 8am and 10pm on weekdays and until 6pm on Saturdays. Any private patients must be treated off-site and in the consultants’ own time.

Meanwhile, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly will also seek Government approval for preferred sites for new elective hospitals for Galway and Cork. Work is understood to be continuing on finalising the business case for a third elective centre in Dublin, which is running behind the other two projects.

It is hoped the three hospitals will ultimately cater for up to 940,000 procedures annually in an effort to reduce waiting lists for surgery.

Mr Donnelly is also bringing plans to the meeting for developing five surgical hubs across the country, at an estimated cost of €90-€100 million.

The hubs – to be located in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Dublin and Waterford – would not carry out emergency or unscheduled surgery. Their recovery beds would be kept for patients awaiting planned operations.

Affordable housing

The Cabinet is also to consider an amendment to the Planning and Development Foreshore Bill to bring in temporary measures to allow for the accelerated delivery of social and affordable housing on zoned, local authority-owned land.

Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin is to bring proposals for a short-term letting register – to be run by Fáilte Ireland – aimed at freeing up 12,000 homes for long-term housing needs. Suppliers offering accommodation for periods of up to and including 21 nights will need to be registered and confirm they have planning permission where needed.

Meanwhile, higher earners will get larger welfare payments if they lose their job under a proposal from Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys. A worker who has made PRSI contributions for five or more years would be entitled to 60 per cent of their gross weekly salary, though the sum would be capped at €450 per week, under the plans.

For people in insurable employment for at least two years – but less than five years – the benefit payment would be set at 50 per cent of prior gross weekly income up to a cap of €300 per week.

Jobseekers’ payments currently stand at up to €208 per week regardless of the salary a worker had been earning before they lost their job, though this will increase by €12 in the new year when Budget 2023 measures kick in. The higher payments would last for six months after a person lost their job.