This article is from page 4 of the 2007-10-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
STRIKE action at Ennis General hospital had been averted as man- agement and unions enter a second round of talks this week.
On Wednesday last an interim agreement was entered into after talks at the Labour Relations Com- mission, as both parties agreed to consider all proposal.
The talks convened after 90 per cent of the staff at the hospital voted for industrial action, claiming low staff- ing levels, brought to a head during the current HSE recruitment freeze, were endangering patients’ lives.
Meanwhile, the HSE released fig- ure yesterday showing that €2 billion was paid to 5,811 doctors, pharma- cies, dentists and optometrists/oph- thalmologists in 2006 through the Primary Care Reimbursement Serv- ice (PCRS), with €681 mullion of this in fees alone for services (in- cluding dispensing) delivered.
In county Clare an Ennis optome- trists was the third highest paid opti- cian under the scheme.
Dr Jarlath Gallagher from _ the Eyecare centre received a total of €164,770 under the scheme.
Ennistymon dentist Dr John Shee- han from the medical centre on Main
Street was listed as the highest paid in his profession in Clare under the scheme at €192,846.
Seven pharmacists in Clare were among the 500 pharmacists nation- ally that earned over €240,000.
Duffy’s Pharmacy in Ennis topped the Clare list receiving a total of €435,761. 191,560 was for medical card fees, €184,858 was under the Drugs Payment Scheme fees mark ups and €59,344 was for Long Term IlIness Scheme fee or mark up.
Over 600 GPs earned over €240,000 in fees in 2006, with 18 earning over €500,000 and one doc- tor receiving over €7/00,000.
The highest paid GP in Clare un- der the scheme was Dr Michael Kel- leher in Ennistymon who received €423,457 in total – €347,026 for fees and another €76,431 for practice Support.
The figures released showed the fees received under the public health schemes and did not include the earnings received by GPs and phar- macists through their private/retail eeu
Publishing the 2006 PCRS Over- view, the HSE confirmed that a to- tal of €2.07 billion had been paid in 2006, representing an increase of €194m in 2006.