Doctor 'outraged' at €25,000 pay rise won't be taking cut
Friday July 24 2009
A HOSPITAL consultant yesterday branded a €25,000 increase in his €225,000 salary as "an outrage".
But he said he will not offer to take a pay cut, because that is "missing the point".
Dr John Barton, a consultant physician at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, said he had been bothered since he was notified of the salary hike under the new consultants' contract scheme.
The implementation of the contracts scheme is estimated to be costing the State €140m and yesterday Dr Barton said he felt very uneasy about such expenditure at a time of swingeing cutbacks.
Dr Barton, who stood for Fine Gael at the last general election -- he lost out on a seat in East Galway by 50 votes -- voiced his concerns in a letter published in a number of daily newspapers earlier this week.
"The Government has already passed this (increase) and yet we are reading about cutbacks at Crumlin Hospital while in my own institution we have a ward and a theatre closed," Dr Barton said. "Surgeons here are itching to do work, but they can't because of the cutbacks."
Dr Barton added: "We're crucifying hospitals and that affects patient services. I'm simply questioning the morality of all of this -- we are already very well paid people".
- Brian McDonald
