Striking doctors 'will report SARS cases'
Doctors will inform health boards of infectious diseases such as the SARS virus in the event of escalated strike action, it was confirmed today.
A spokesman for the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) rejected reports that GPs were considering not reporting suspected cases. He said it was “categorically not the case” that they would take such action.
“It never has been and never will be discussed,” IMO director of industrial relations Fintan Hourihan said.
General practitioners and junior doctors are planning to escalate industrial action started by public health doctors earlier this month.
Public health doctors – who are responsible for dealing with infectious diseases – have been on strike in a pay and conditions row, sparking concern over how the country would deal with an outbreak of SARS.
Mr Hourihan insisted today that an escalation of action would not put patients at risk. He said: “There will be no threat to the immediate medical needs of patients.
“What we are saying is that we have a policy decision that any form of industrial action will not be a threat to the emergency medical care provided to patients.
“We are taking considerable steps to ensure that the purpose of any further form of protest on top of the public health doctors’ strike is targeted at the department (of health).”
His words came after a weekend of clashes between the IMO and Health Minister Micheál Martin over the potential for the spread of Sars to Ireland from the Far East.
No instances of the sickness have so far been confirmed in Ireland, but Mr Martin and the Government have come under fire from both medical representatives and opposition politicians for their handling of a number of high-profile suspect cases.
The Government has yet to respond to demands for a recall of the Dáil from its continuing Easter recess to debate the SARS menace, and opposition politicians have pleaded for new measures aimed at preventing the virus reaching Ireland.
Labour health spokeswoman Liz McManus said it was clear that neither the public nor the medical profession had any confidence in the capacity of the minister to deal with this problem effectively, and branded as “inept and incompetent” the handling of a suspected case involving a Chinese woman who recently arrived in Ireland.
An expert group appointed by the Department of Health to monitor SARS was meeting today to discuss the outbreak.
