PUBLIC AND COMMUNITY HEALTH DOCTORS NATIONAL MEETING MOTIONS

Saturday 2^nd April 10am – 12.30pm

Longstanding AMOs

1. The IMO calls on the HSE to recognise the relevant experience of longstanding Area Medical Officers in the delivery of Child Health, Immunisation and other community medical services by upgrading those AMOs to Senior Medical Officer Posts in Community Medical Departments, as SMO has been the entry grade to Community Medical Departments since 2003.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committee

Status: Carried 

Recruitment

2. This IMO calls on the HSE to ensure that all of the current vacancies, or vacancies that occur in the future in Departments of Community Health for Senior Area Medical Officers are filled on a permanent basis as soon as possible, in order to ensure maintenance of essential child health, immunisation and other community medical services.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committee

Status: Carried

3. The IMO calls on the HSE to ensure that all of the vacancies that there currently are, or that occur in the future, in Departments of Public Health for Senior Medical Officers and for Specialists in Public Health Medicine are filled on a permanent basis as soon as possible.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committee

Status: Carried

4. The IMO calls on the HSE to institute a fair and transparent recruitment process to fill vacancies that occur for the position of Directors of Public Health, promotional opportunities that should ideally be filled by local competition for a maximum term of 3 to 5 years, possibly renewable for one further term.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committee

Status: Carried

Workforce Planning

5. The IMO calls on the Health and Wellbeing Directorate of the HSE to make the Workforce Plan for Public Health Medicine in Ireland available so that it may be assessed for the adequacy of the recommended staffing levels to ensure that Departments of Public Health have sufficient medical staff to safely carry out the legislatively required health protection duties and their other duties to improve the health of the population in the areas that they cover.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committe

Amendment:

The IMO calls on the Health and Wellbeing Directorate of the HSE to make the Workforce Plan for Public Health Medicine in Ireland available so that it may be assessed for the adequacy of the recommended staffing levels to ensure that Departments of Public Health have sufficient medical staff to safely carry out the legislatively required health protection and other duties to improve the health of the population in the areas that they cover.

Amended Motion Carried

Strategic Review of Medical Training and Career Structure Working Group

6. The IMO calls on the Department of Health to implement the recommendations of the Strategic Review of Medical Training and Career Structure Working Group (McCraith Review) in order to reduce the future clinical risk to the health security of the people of Ireland from an inadequate or collapsed public health medicine service.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committee

Status: Carried

Out of Hours

7. In view of the absence of agreed contractual arrangements and pending negotiations on a Type A Consultant Contract for Specialists in Public Health Medicine, the IMO calls on the HSE to engage in meaningful discussions about the provision of a safe and adequately resourced Public Health Medicine Out of Hours Service in line with Ireland’s obligations under international health regulations and with the need to protect the health of the Irish population on a 24/7 basis.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committee

Status: Carried

Consultant Contract for Specialists in Public Health Medicine

8. The IMO calls on the Department of Health and the HSE to implement the Common Consultant Contract for Specialists in Public Health Medicine given the importance of public health medicine in protecting and improving the health of the population of Ireland, and given the serious mismatch between the duties of Specialists in Public Health Medicine (SPHM) and the current SPHM contract.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committee

Status: Carried

Parity of Pay

9. The IMO calls on the Department of Health to address the ongoing injustice of the differential between the salaries of Specialists in Public Health physicians and other specialist physicians, in order to attract and retain high quality trainees in Public Health Medicine in Ireland.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committee

Status: Carried

 

Continuing Medical Education

10. The IMO calls on the HSE to increase CME funding for Public Health and Community Health doctors to the same level as that provided for hospital consultants, as all doctors are required by the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, to maintain professional competence and to be enrolled in a professional competence scheme since May 2011 and the costs are essentially the same.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committee

Status: Carried

Resourcing Preparedness

11. The IMO calls on the Department of Health and the HSE to adequately resource Departments of Public Health Medicine with regard to their preparedness to identify and respond to rapidly emerging threats to the health of the Irish population and to meet the requirements of international health regulations.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Committee

Status: Carried

Climate Change

12. In recognition that recent flooding throughout Ireland tragically resulted in multiple deaths and in severe physical and mental stress for many people, the IMO calls on the HSE and the Department of Health to resource Departments of Public Health adequately so that the staff can fulfil their statutory obligations to carry out climate related epidemiology, so as to provide more effective protection for the public from climate related health impacts and to contribute to Ireland meeting its international obligations on climate change adaptation.

Proposer:   Public Health and Community Health Doctor Committee

Status: Carried

Inequalities in Health

13. The HSE published local health profiles in 2015, which highlighted that there are substantial inequalities in access to health care and in lifetime health experience between individuals from different socio-economic backgrounds.  The IMO calls on the HSE to fully resource Departments of Public Health Medicine so that they are able to identify where these inequalities occur and to develop strategies to reduce or eliminate them.

Proposer: Public Health and Community Health Doctor Committee

Status: Carried