Concern has been raised that patients are being used as “pawns” and left vulnerable because of a medical strike.
Stand-in doctors in at least six hospitals nationwide have not been showing up for shifts in protest over a six euro per hour cut to their pay.
One Clare Fine Gael TD has called for an end to the strike – Clare FM’s Fiona McGarry reports:
Locum medics across the country are calling for the decision to reduce their wages by six euro per hour to be reversed.
The pay cut was brought in on Friday for the doctors – who operate on a freelance basis and are needed as the current levels of recruitment continue to be below adequate levels.
Their pay dropped from €40 to €34 per hour, a move that has led medics in at least six emergency departments nationwide not to show up for work.
One of those is in Limerick, although sources say it was not UHL and that operations there weren’t affected
But Fergal Hickey from the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine has warned the action might not stop at Emergency Departments.
