Ms Shirley Coulter:

To address what Dr. Murphy is referring to, a document detailing 15 national standards, I have a copy of the document which I can share with the committee, although I am sure the HSE will distribute it later. It is entitled, Assessing Performance in Reducing NCHD Working Hours - National Standards. Essentially, these are 15 national standards developed by the national working group on the European working time directive which was established last year. The IMO requested that it be involved with the working group. We had one meeting with the group in May last year and have not heard anything from it since, despite raising the matter on numerous occasions. We are constantly engaged in discussions with the HSE under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission and raised the question of the working group a number of times.

The document, with the 15 standards, was drafted by the aforementioned working group without consultation with the IMO, as the representative body for NCHDs. Furthermore, it was drafted without local level engagement with doctors working on the ground. It is my understanding that a number of site visits were conducted around the country as a data gathering exercise. The working group saw, for example, that certain specialties with a certain number of doctors were working well and in near compliance with the directive, while others with similar numbers of doctors were nowhere near compliance. It seems that the working group tried to come up with a sticking plaster solution by taking what worked in one area and trying to apply it across the board.

It will never work without the proper and appropriate local-level engagement of doctors who are actually in place. The HSE should bear in mind that buy-in from doctors will be required to work these new rostering arrangements. For doctors to feel that they have ownership and some control over what they are doing, it is necessary that they are involved in the rostering process.

Dr. Murphy referred to standards and we referred to them in our statement as well. It is concerning that a key recommendation of the Hanly report from 2003, which is Government policy, and a key recommendation of the HSE's report on European working time directive, EWTD, compliance relates to the removal of inappropriate tasks from non-consultant hospital doctors, NCHDs. There are 15 standards for achieving the EWTD but the report mentions nothing about the tasks, duties, roles and responsibilities. The HSE is following through on its stated policy when it comes to implementation. This was issued throughout the system and hospitals had to report back by 1 March on how they would achieve compliance. This occurred with no consultation with NCHDs. We held a meeting with NCHDs and some HSE senior management attended. After that I received an e-mail to stating that the HSE would now engage with NCHDs but it is a little late for that. They had already drafted the standards. We will be calling for the withdrawal of these standards, for everyone, including all the stakeholders, to get around the table to ensure that national standards are implementable and achievable and that they will effect real change. These must be drafted and implemented with the required urgency.

Reference was made to clock-in systems. The Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, and several hospitals have agreed to the introduction of clock-in systems and they are working well. That is one of the objectives of the national standards and one we are willing to discuss with the HSE. It is absolutely untrue and it is disappointing to hear that there is an indication that NCHDs might be claiming for hours that are not worked.