The Head of the Health Service Executive, Professor Brendan Drumm, has said that while talks with hospital consultants over future contracts have reached an impasse, he is hopeful that agreement can be reached.
Speaking in RTÉ this evening Professor Drumm said the negotiations had reached an impasse to some degree.
He said the HSE had agreed to reinstitute the consultants' appointment for three months once the talks began but it was the consultants' view that they had to 'make' all appointments over the past year.
'I'm hopeful that the chairman's decision to get us back into talks will be adhered to by all concerned,' Prof Drumm said. 'The Board of the HSE has clearly taken the view that it does not believe the Irish public will be best served by contracts that allow consultants to work in off-site private hospitals.'
Mr Drumm said he was hopeful that the talks were not close to breaking down and in his view the majority of Irish consultants want to engage in this reform process.
There was a view out there that Irish consultants are just focused on money an high earnings but Professor Drumm thought they were really committed to making this system of reform work well for the public and he thought their voice would be heard.
'I think they do want to enter into negotiations that will lead to a better approach going forward,' he said.
