Things at Bay of Plenty hospitals have resumed back to normal after a 73-hour strike by doctors this week.
About 100 junior doctors, who are members of the NZ Resident Doctors' Association, at Tauranga and Whakatane hospitals walked off the job on Tuesday until the strike ended at 8am today. The strike was held throughout New Zealand and was done to highlight issues around working hours. The doctors voted to take industrial action for a second time in three months after negotiations between their union and district health boards stalled.
Bay of Plenty District Health Board acting chief operating officer Trevor Richardson said the three says went very smoothly from and operational perspective.
"Regrettably, in preparation for the strike, we had to reduce our theatre lists and defer some patient appointments. This contingency planning did mean that we were able to care for our patients appropriately with reduced numbers of staff," he said.
"We also had a lower than expected number of people attending the Tauranga Hospital Emergency Department (ED) over the three days. We would like to thank the public for heeding the call of only attending ED in an emergency. We were expecting about 144 people per day. The actual daily average was 118 people.
"No additional outside staff were brought in to cover the strike. The staffing was a mix of junior doctors and senior doctors, with support from a range of other health professionals. We really appreciate the support of our staff, which enabled us to ensure ongoing care."