The State’s public health doctors are set to ballot for strike action in a long-running battle with the Department of Health to secure consultant-grade contracts. The doctors’ representative body has been campaigning for public health to become a consultant-led service and for public health specialists to be awarded consultant contracts to reflect their skills. Public health specialists earn €113,822 at present. Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly favours consultant-led public health and his department and the Health Service Executive are finalising a proposal that will go to the Department of Public Expenditure in mid-November. Doctors wants all 60 existing public health specialists to be offered consultant contracts immediately, though they fear that the positions may be advertised over a phased period.

Source: The Irish Times October 31, 2020 01:30 UTC