Ruth
Hill, Reporter
- 24-hour
strike by more than 5000 senior doctors set to finish at
11.59pm - Health NZ says it is likely
to postpone 4300 planned
procedures - Doctors say staff
shortages already affecting thousands of patients every
week - Australian hospitals offering
“two to four times” the salaries in New
Zealand.
More than 5000 senior hospital
doctors and specialists have walked off the job for an
unprecedented 24-hour strike in protest over stalled
contract negotiations.
Health NZ insists its offer is
fair and reasonable, and expressed disappointment that
thousands of patients were having their care
disrupted.
However, the Association of Salaried
Medical Specialists said its members were fighting for the
future of the public health system, which was failing to
recruit and retain doctors with the low-ball salaries on
offer.
Health Minister Simeon Brown criticised the
Association for not putting the Health NZ offer to its
members to vote on.
Coromandel builder Mark was
supposed to have surgery on Thursday on his severely
infected leg, but had been warned it was likely to be
postponed due to the strike.
It was the second time in
six months that Mark had been caught up in industrial
action, after waiting four weeks in November for
reconstructive surgery on his shoulder after an earlier
accident.
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“I spent about eight, eight-and-a-half hours
in surgery in the Monday. And then on Tuesday they got me
out of bed and shunted me out because of the nurses’ strike
and said come back for a check-up in six weeks. Well, I came
back in six weeks and another surgeon said to me ‘Oh, it’s
frozen up, because you should have been back moving it after
three weeks’.”
On Tuesday, he spent more than 12 hours
in Waikato Hospital’s emergency department after being sent
there from Thames Hospital.
“There was elderly in
there well into their 80s and 90s just waiting for a bed at
1am and they’d been waiting all day. It’s just
unreal.”
Despite these experiences, the striking
doctors have his support.
“All the doctors and nurses
have been fantastic. They are working flat out, it’s awful
for them.”
Health NZ Chief Clinical Officer, Dr
Richard Sullivan, said plans were in place to ensure
hospitals and emergency departments would remain open during
the strike action and clinical staff – including doctors –
would still be available to treat patients who needed
care.
“We are concerned about the impacts the strike
action will have on patients waiting for planned care and
specialist appointments,” he said.
“It is estimated
that 4300 planned procedures will have to be postponed due
to the strike action causing further harm to patients
waiting a long time for treatment and will set back our work
to provide New Zealanders with faster access to
care.”
To maintain patient safety, some clinics would
be closed.
Any appointments that were deferred due to
the strike action would be rescheduled for the next
available opportunity.
“We value our doctors and want
to do the best we can for them, but the reality is that
Health NZ has limited budget available for salary
settlements within its tight financial
constraints.”
Under the offer rejected by the union,
senior doctors would have received increases to base pay
ranging from $8,093 to $29,911 to depending on experience,
he said.
The Association of Salaried Medical
Specialists president, Katie Ben, said she was sorry for
patients affected by today’s strike.
However, the same
thing was happening every day, year after year, to patients
who could not get treatment because of chronic staff
shortages, she said.
“I hate having to go to a patient
and saying ‘I’m really sorry, we’re not going to be able to
do your operation today, we just don’t have the time, the
theatre space, the theatre staff, we don’t have a bed on the
ward for you to be able to go to afterwards.
“Patients
have turned their lives upside down to get ready for their
surgery – taken time off work, organised people to look
after their children… it’s very distressing.”
Health
NZ’s pay offer was a 1.5 percent cap on total salary
increases over the two-year term, which amounted to a pay
rise of 0.77 percent per year.
“They do have the
money, they’re spending it in the wrong place. So for
example, they spent more than $380m trying on locums and
temporary staff trying to plug the gaps.
“If they had
put that money into front-line, full-time, permanent staff,
this would not be an issue.”
Dr Ben said she and her
colleagues did not want to strike. However, the chronic
workforce shortages leave them no choice.
When she is
on call, she is the only anaesthetist at Nelson
Hospital.
“And If I’m in theatre with a trauma and
they call me for an emergency obstetric intervention, I
cannot be there.
“And there are no other anaesthetists
to help me – that is a horrendous situation to put anyone
in. I do not want to make those decisions.
“Do I leave
my patient on the table unattended? That’s not going to
happen. Do I leave a woman in labour who’s in extremis
without intervention? That’s not going to happen either.
What do I do?”
Tairāwhiti Gisborne has a 44 percent
vacancy rate for senior doctors, according to the most
recent head count by heads of department – the worst region
in the country.
Local union president Carol Chan, a
paediatrician, said her own department has a new doctor
starting in July, but they have lost three since the start
of last year.
They should have six doctors doing
filling the equivalent of five full-time roles, but instead
they have three people doing 2.4 FTE.
Shortages in
other specialities were also hurting her young
patients.
There is no child psychiatrist in
Tairāwhiti.
The shortage of surgeons means long waits
for elective surgery.
“Accessing dental surgery is
taking a year, that’s just not fair. ENT [ear nose and
throat] services are also extremely short and children are
waiting for grommets for a year without being able to hear –
that’s just inequitable.”
Dr Chan said it was not
about the money.
“I don’t think any of us who are
still here necessarily want a payrise. But what we’re
getting is not attracting colleagues and keeping them
here.
“That’s the problem.”
Northland
cardiologist Marcus Lee is currently trying to recruit
another specialist for his team of five – but said they
really needed another three to cope with all the patients
needing their help.
“Our major issue is recruiting
people to come to New Zealand. People come and they say
‘It’s beautiful’.. but then they look at our salaries and
say ‘Thanks very much’.”
He regularly receives offers
to work in Australia paying two to four times as much as his
current position.
Taranaki resident Denise, who had
her long-awaited wrist surgery cancelled today for the
second time in a month, does not blame doctors for moving
across the Tasman.
“I moved to Australia, I lived
there for nearly 30 years and it’s incredible the difference
in pay. But we need to keep them here, we need them to have
a reason to stay. And if we can’t even pay them properly…
I mean, why would you?”
Union ‘refusing to put
updated offer to members’ – Brown
Health Minister
Simeon Brown has lashed out at the Association of Salaried
Medical Specialists for not even putting an offer from
Health NZ to its members to vote on.
Brown took to
social media to blame the union for patients now being
forced to wait even longer for surgeries, planned
treatments, and appointments.
He said an updated offer
last week, including $25,000 for senior doctors to move to
hard to staff regions for two years, had been rejected by
the union before members even saw it.
“Over 4000
surgeries, planned treatments, and specialist appointments
have been delayed as a result of this strike. People waiting
for hip operations, knee replacements, cataract removals and
critical specialist assessments will have their care
delayed.
“These patients have already been waiting for
too long, and will now be forced to wait longer due to the
ASMS union refusing to put the updated offer Health NZ put
on the table last Thursday to their members,” Brown
wrote.
The minister said the updated offer addressed a
number of the key issues raised by the union to attract and
retain senior doctors, but “instead of putting this offer to
members to vote on it, the ASMS union has rejected
it”.
Brown said key elements of the offer
included:
- Removing steps 1-3 of the senior
medical officer pay scale, to ensure senior doctors are
earning more than junior doctors and don’t get an effective
pay reducation when they become senior doctors. - A
lump sum payment of $8000 over two years to doctors with
three years or more. - Establishing bonding for senior
doctors who move to hard to staff regions such as Nelson and
Gisborne, offering a 2-year recruitment and retention
payment of $25,000 to help address critical work shortages
in these regions. - Annual increases in steps for
senior doctors over a two-year term of the
collective.
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