A few more thoughts for @roinnslainte @HSELive
1/ Some people believe that our refusal as private consultants to sign the HSE contract is about money. You’re right, it is about money, it’s about your money, the taxpayers money, that we have told the HSE and DOH we don’t want.
1/ Some people believe that our refusal as private consultants to sign the HSE contract is about money. You’re right, it is about money, it’s about your money, the taxpayers money, that we have told the HSE and DOH we don’t want.
2/ We have asked 100s of times to pay us less, that we will continue to pay for our outgoings, that it’s ridiculous to add insult to injury as ask the taxpayers to foot a higher bill at the end of all of this.
3/ So if people think that it’s about wanting a higher income, that is not true. It’s to have the ability to pay our staff (and not ask the taxpayer to do it). These are staff that might work 2-3 days a week so that they can balance the challenges of family life and children.
4/ These might be nurses that have worked in the public system for 20 years but grew weary of the weeks of night duty, or 13 hour shifts, and wanted to keep working but maybe just with options for different hours.
5/ These could be staff that can avoid the 90 minute commute to work and can in fact work from home, which allows him/her to be able to drop the kids to school and pick them up, enables them not be getting home at 8pm each night.
6/ The HSE provide these staff in the public system but won’t provide any to those of us in the private sector, which is totally understandable, but they are now asking us to work for the HSE yet without key staff.
7/ I’ve read one comment that the problem with the private system is that public consultants are doing too much private work. I am not a public consultant. And I’ve already discussed why private work is done. It’s for the patient.
8/ I am one of 600 specialists who work only in the private sector. We do not take a salary or pension or anything from the state or taxpayer.
9/ This is the crux of our issue with the HSE proposed contract. I have provided care for the last 5 weeks pro bono. If it was about income, then ask why I wouldn’t have taken the HSE offer. It’s not about income.
10/ It’s about my patients. The HSE have now removed indemnity for even my pro bono work in the hospital, effectively meaning I cannot help inpatients for free. Ask why would this be so?
11/Ask why would it be that the majority of doctors in full time private medicine have been working for free rather than agreeing to sign the contract?
12/ Those that have signed have not signed because they are happy with it, they have signed because of considerable pressure being applied, because of fear that they won’t have a job to go back to after this, and after 4 weeks, a realisation that the HSE is not negotiating
13/ Is that how you behave towards someone you are asking for help? When you needed extra capacity for ICU, ask yourselves why you didn’t open back up the 140+ beds that remain closed in the public system.
14/If you can’t get the number of specialist nursing or medical staff to look after icu or extra beds, then ask yourselves why?
15/If the hse approached a local pharmacy, and told the pharmacist they were going to offer him/her a salary but want them to pay their staff from that salary and give away the medicines for free, how would that work?
16/ If hse took over a local supermarket and asked the owner to pay the staff and give away the items on the shelves for free how long would that work?
