Irish Medical Organisation President also says union will work to secure ‘long overdue pay claim’ for public and community health doctors
The IMO will support ‘whatever action’ NCHDs decide to take ‘to achieve a better training and working experience’ if the HSE does not engage positively in contract negotiations, the union’s head has said.
In his inaugural address as IMO President, Prof Matthew Sadlier that ‘warm words’ about the work these doctors do is not enough, and that any new contract needs to reflect the ‘vastly changed demographics’ of the workforce.
“Many years ago, I was part of the team that launched legal proceedings against the HSE over the European Working Time Directive – now the Organisation of Working Time Act,” he told delegates attending the IMO AGM which took place in Killarney this weekend.
“I am truly saddened that NCHD working hours are still above legal working limits, which is not only about the employer breaking the law, but also unsafe for patients and doctors”
Among the motions passed by NCHDs at the meeting was a call for the HSE to address its ‘continued failure’ to fully implement a previous agreement on working hours and conditions, which included the removal of all 24-hour shifts, and the introduction of sanctions on hospitals for breaching the Organisation of Working Time Act.
“While we did successfully negotiate significant improvements in 2023 to how our NCHDs can be rostered and while we acknowledge there have been some improvements, it is not enough,” added Prof Sadlier.
“Our focus in the current NCHD contract talks is to secure a contract that reflects the vastly changed demographics of the NCHD population. Our NCHDs are the future of the profession. The HSE must engage positively with them, but if not, we will support whatever action they decide to take to achieve a better training and working experience.”
Referring to public and community health doctors, he said that a ‘lack of understanding’ of their work ‘must be challenged and addressed’. “It is long past time that the HSE engaged in a proactive way with the IMO to support these services and the doctors working in them. They may be a small group of doctors within the IMO but they are as important to us as the largest group and we will support them accordingly.
“The first step now is to secure, under local bargaining, their long overdue pay claim – I know the committee are determined to continue the work on developing a vision for the service which recognises the skills and expertise of public and community doctors and which is appropriately remunerated.”
Among the topics discussed at the annual meeting was the experience of international doctors in the Irish health system, with media reports highlighting incidents of abuse towards them in recent years.
Prof Sadlier praised the contribution made by international healthcare workers and criticised all incidents of verbal and even physical abuse against them based on their race, religion or ethnicity.
“The Irish health services and the people of this country are utterly dependent on the contribution of international doctors, nurses and support staff,” he said. “The thugs who shout obscenities and physically threaten these colleagues bring shame to this country and their behaviour must never be tolerated or accepted.”
Prof Sadlier said that the coming year would be challenging for many parts of the health services. He signalled out General Practice as facing particular challenges.
“The Strategic Review on General Practice (being carried out by the Department of Health) must address the very serious manpower crisis in General Practice,” he said.
“The workload of GPs has increased enormously over the past decade, and many practices are now reaching breaking point. Not surprisingly we are facing a recruitment crisis.
“We have too few GPs in general and too many of those still working are approaching retirement age. Many GPs are unable to take on additional patients. The Strategic Review must recognise the scale of the challenge facing the sector and put forward realistic and concrete proposals to address them.”
Prof Sadlier began the annual conference with an urgent call for an additional 5,000 hospital beds to meet health system demands.
In his address to delegates on Saturday, he said a major investment programme was required to achieve this expansion in capacity. The shortage of hospital beds is directly contributing to the crisis with both waiting lists and Emergency Departments and was forcing many hospitals to operate beyond safe capacity levels, he added.
The impact of social media on the mental health of young people was also a concern for the new President, who is also a Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist at Dublin’s Mater Hospital.
“We are dealing with a growing mental health crisis particularly amongst young people which is a direct result of the growth of unregulated and commercially obsessed social media,” he said.
“We have heard at this conference of the acute misery and damage being inflicted on young people in particular by the activities of the giant tech companies whose only interest in young people is how to capture and hold their attention.
“It is beyond time for regulators to restrict the practices of these companies and hold them responsible for the harm they are inflicting.”
Meanwhile, Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) has welcomed IMO members voting in favour of three motions calling for a 15 per cent increase in alcohol excise duty, more frequent breath testing for drivers, and a commitment by the Health Minister that long-awaited health warning labels for alcoholic drinks will be implemented from September 2028 as planned.
“The successful IMO motions are each important in their own right and would go a long way to help tackle harm from alcohol if the respective Ministers were to implement them,” said AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany.
“What the motions also highlight is the disjointed approach Ireland is currently taking to tackling alcohol harm, with three different Ministers responsible for three different but interlinked aspects of alcohol policy.
“Unfortunately, in Ireland there is no dedicated national strategy to tackle alcohol harm which hinders attempts to fashion a robust strategic response to reducing Ireland’s alcohol burden, now and into the future. It also gives space for vested interests to exploit and to stymie a coherent response.”
Click here to read full coverage of the IMO AGM 2026.
<
Leave a Reply