The Green Party submitted an urgent parliamentary question to the health minister this week, querying why hospitals have not been paying doctors for out-of-hours work since the start of the year. According to Deprez, the reason is down to the fact a new agreement was in the process of being negotiated, which remained unsigned until last week. Deprez admitted there had been no additional pay for three months, but that no more obstacles would stand in the way now that the budget had been agreed and signed off.
"Of course it's always a bit problematic when drafting a plan for out-of-hours care, and the doctors tell me they haven't been paid for overtime for the last few months. We understand that. We tried to solve the issue as quickly as possible. But we had just decided on a course of action to strengthen the out-of-hours care in the government council, and until we got the OK, we had to wait for the agreement to be signed. That is now done and the payment can be taken care of."
April wage slips will now contain retroactive pay from January onwards. In December, the relevant committee made up of stakeholders from the sector decided that the out-of-hours framework would be expanded this year. This bill passed through the government council in early February, but the budget has only just been approved by the finance ministry.
For this year, the government's contribution to the out-of-hours healthcare service has been fixed at €61.7 million.
AMMD president Chris Roller shared his criticisms of the difficult procedure with RTL, as the doctors' association would prefer the agreement be renewed on an annual basis.
