Until employees and providers of services can be sure that contracts agreed will be honoured by the employer, there is little hope that the manpower crisis in the medical profession will change, says IMO President Dr Ray Walley.

Dr Padraig McGarry, Chair of the IMO GP Committee, believes that if we adopt a new policy of focusing on general practice as the solution in many of our health service ill, capacity, infrastructure, IT and a new weighted capitation model will all have to be addressed.

Anthony Owens, IMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, is adamant that health service management must keep up their end of the bargain and pay contractually agreed salaries.

With climate change likely to have a great impact on health, Dr Ann Hogan, Chair of the IMO’s Public Health Doctors and Community Health Doctors Committee, believes doctors can do a lot both to educate the public on health and illness related to weather and gather much-needed data on such issues as temperature-related mortality and waterborne disease rates.

Public Health Medicine may be small specialty, but it is a vital one, according to Dr Anne Dee of the IMO Public Health Doctors and Community Health Doctors Committee, who believes its expertise needs to be informing policy and practice at every level of healthcare.

Dr John Duddy, IMO Vice President and NCHD Committee Chair, is disappointed that more progress has not been made on measures to counter the exodus of Irish doctors abroad and to make the HSE an ‘employer of choice’.

Despite some success in terms of public sector pay and many personal cases, Steve Tweed, IMO Director of Industrial Relations, says lack of progress on MacCraith and solving our ED trolley crisis has been frustrating.

More than one-in-five hospitals required a re-inspection due to poor hygiene last year, a HIQA report shows.

Cian O’Dowd, IMO Policy and International Affairs Officer, looks at how the IMO will help doctors preserve their medical professionalism in an increasingly commercial healthcare environment.

In the wake of continuing threats of terrorist activity across the globe, two Irish training bodies are set to be advised by doctors to be aware of the potential of unconsciously legitimising regimes with links to terrorism, IMT reports.