Junior doctors will today lay down instruments to protest conditions that a Dunedin spokesperson says could erode the future of healthcare.
Resident Medical Officer (RMO) Bill Lu said the 25-hour strike would counter a short-sighted approach to pay and working conditions by Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ).
'Every GP counts.
“These negotiations with HNZ will have a long-term impact – negative if they follow the same line – on our audiences for decades to come.”
Dr. Lu is executive secretary and treasurer of the New Zealand Resident Doctors Association (NZRDA), the union now at an impasse in negotiations with HNZ.
The nationwide strike, which starts at 7am today and ends at 8am tomorrow, received huge support from the 2,500 union members.
In a recent vote, 95% supported the move, he said
“I think this is a clear confirmation of how fed up, how irritated and how unhappy people are.”
The national vote also extended to Dunedin, where there were 188 RMOs, including more than 110 RNZDA members.
One of the key negotiating issues Dr Lu highlighted was the “distinct lack of workforce planning” evidenced by HNZ's offer, which included pay cuts of up to 12% that would impact some registrars.
This would have consequences for training in areas where there was already a shortage of personnel, such as radiotherapy, medical oncology, psychiatry, pathology and public health.
It also included primary care, where HNZ proposed a pay cut for GPs or trainees of up to $13,000.
“Amid a crisis in primary care and mental health, with worsening emergency department wait times and poorer access to specialist services, offering a pay cut is deeply shortsighted.”
About 600 registrars would be affected by pay freezes or cuts.
HNZ also proposed lowering the limit on salary progression for doctors who had not been admitted to vocational training.
In practice, this would unfairly impact people delving into much-needed subspecialties of surgery, such as neurosurgery, he said.
Nationally, there were about 500 vacancies for junior doctors, largely caused by people leaving the country for better pay abroad.
Moving abroad was a common topic among his colleagues, Dr. Lu said.
“We also have people who are burned out and are actually leaving the profession. Anecdotally, I know quite a few people from Dunedin Hospital who are leaving the medical profession after six years of training because they are burned out, because the working conditions are not good enough.”
This related to another concern: the NZRDA was pushing for sufficient regulation to limit excessive scheduling.
Scheduling doctors to work 32 hours in a 48-hour window was a safety issue, he said.
Such long hours would not be allowed in other jobs, such as truck driving.
The NZRDA would work with HNZ to ensure adequate life-saving services continued during the strike, he said.
HNZ did not respond to request for comment before the ODT deadline yesterday.
The organization contested the union's demand for a pay cut last month.
“During our initial negotiations, we guaranteed that no RMO will take a pay cut,” it told RNZ.