Thursday, February 21 2008

More than two years after submitting a proposal and a year after receiving a counter proposal, the Medical Profes-sionals Association of TT (MPATT) is hopeful that a conclusion of negotiations for contracts (2006-2008) for regional health authorities doctors will soon be concluded.

This is dependent on the proposal to be reviewed by the Public Sector Negotiating Committee (PSNC).

MPATT secretary, Dr Shehenaz Mohammed said a meeting took place on Tuesday with David O’Brien, head of the Joint Negotiating Team of the Regional Health Authorities (JNT).

Mohammed said MPATT and the JNT had reached agreement on the proposal which would give doctors (house officers, registrars and consultants) a 15 percent increase and 27 percent for the three-year period.

However, the PSNC did not approve the package last July. Negotiations were stymied the following months by cancellation of meetings. Mohammed said then the General Election took place in November and afterwards MPATT waited for the members of the PSNC to be named.

Mohammed said MPATT had submitted a proposal in August 2005 to the JNT but a counter proposal was only received in December 2006.