In mid-October the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, wrote to my Department in relation to payments for public health doctors who may have to be called on out-of-hours in response to alerts relating to biological threats. My Department replied to the IMO advising them that the appropriate statutory body for dealing with such claims is the Health Service Employers Agency – HSEA. Subsequently, it was brought to my Department's attention that the IMO had advised public health doctors not to agree to participate in out-of-hours on-call rosters in the event of a biological incident. My Department again wrote to the IMO requesting it to withdraw with immediate effect their advice to public health doctors and to pursue their claim through normal industrial relations channels. In early November the IMO submitted a claim to the HSEA in this regard and the HSEA is currently processing the claim. I regret however that the IMO has indicated that it will not withdraw its advice until negotiations have been completed.
A meeting in relation to this claim was held on 4 December between the HSEA, officials of the Department of Health and Children and the IMO. The various issues involved were discussed and possible approaches to settling the claim were examined.
