As you will know, Consultant recruitment and retention is an issue, or more accurately two issues, on which the IMO has been vocal over the past number of years.  It was due to the efforts of the IMO at national pay talks that Consultant recruitment and retention was included in the first phase of the second module of the work of the Public Service Pay Commission.

 

The IMO made a detailed submission to the Commission in this regard, and you can read a copy of that submission here.

 

The Commission have begun the process of surveying a sample of Doctors on recruitment and retention, and individual Consultants may be contacted in the near future and asked survey questions on these issues.

 

It is important that members are aware of the content of the IMO submission and reinforce the message conveyed therein. In summary, our submission sets out that;

 

• The majority of Consultants believe that their pay would be improved by  moving abroad
• Most Consultants feel that their service requires more medical staff
• Almost unanimously, Consultants believe that cumulative pay cuts have harmed efforts to recruit Consultants into the public health service.

 

There is a commitment contained in the Public Service Stability Agreement that the parties will engage when the Commission has published its findings. Predictably, we have seen little from the management side to suggest that such an engagement will be anything other than difficult.

 

If you have any comments or questions on this matter, please send those to consultantissues@imo.ie