IMO warns of industrial action on consultant ‘crisis’

The IMO has warned that it will ballot for industrial action if the Government does not produce “concrete proposals to reverse the consultant recruitment crisis within 21 days”.

This comes after meetings yesterday between the IMO and officials from the Department of Health, HSE and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

“The Government has shown a complete lack of interest in producing any substantive solutions to this crisis which is adversely affecting patients,” said Dr Matthew Sadlier, Consultant Psychiatrist and a former President of the IMO.

He added that “continued Government inaction was inexcusable.”

“We want to provide our patients with the best possible quality of care, but we can only do that in a system that is safe and properly resourced.

“We need to recruit more specialists into the vacant posts before any reform will be possible.”

The IMO said that there was a “palpable level of frustration” among consultants and NCHDs “at having to deliver care in a service that is on the brink of collapse, and which is unsafe for doctors and their patients.”