A striking Tauranga Hospital cardiologist says he will “probably retire” from public service and work full-time in the private sector due to the “abusive” public health system leaving specialists “squeezed”.
Dr Dean Boddington is one of the nearly 5000 Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) members expected to strike on Tuesday — the first of three planned strikes.
The 56-year-old told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend he was “close to burnout” and not prepared to keep working in the public hospital in its current state.
“We, as specialists, are just getting squeezed. The system is abusive — it just assumes that we will do everything to cover up all the cracks in the system.
“Whenever there’s a shortage of staff, we’re just told we have to come in and work extra after hours. And we’re sick of it. Enough is enough. This has to stop.”
Te Whatu Ora Health NZ has previously said it made senior doctors a fair offer. Mediation between Te Whatu Ora and the union began yesterday and are ongoing.
Figures from the union show 207 members in Tauranga and 47 members in Whakatāne employed by Te Whatu Ora would participate in the strike. Three nationwide strikes are planned for September 5, 13 and 21, each lasting two to four hours.
During that time, all members will strike except for those needed to perform life-saving procedures. These will be done by non-union members first and then ASMS members if needed.
An ASMS media release said more than 80 per cent of members voted to carry out the strikes for the first time in New Zealand, following the breakdown of their pay negotiations.
It said the union’s claim on behalf of its members for a Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment this year — 1 April 2023 to 30 March 2024 — was rejected by Te Whatu Ora.
ASMS chief executive Sarah Dalton told the Herald last week that members wanted pay rates to increase with CPI, and she was hopeful the strike action would encourage Te Whatu Ora to “think again”.
“[The vote] is a significant endorsement of collective action and reflects the extreme frustration of members over Te Whatu Ora and the Government’s refusal to value our workforce, address staff shortages and ensure that salaries maintain their real value against inflation.”
Boddington said he mostly worked at Tauranga Hospital but also worked privately in Tauranga and Hamilton.
In his view, the hospital’s working conditions were “poor” due to a lack of staff and this resulted in “enormous pressure” on employees.
Some of his patients had been waiting 11 months for procedures, while new patients were waiting up to six months to see him. Follow-up appointments were taking more than a year, he said.
“There just aren’t enough people to do the work and as a consequence, we’re having to work too hard. Patients also suffer because they’re not getting seen at the appropriate time and they’re not getting procedures in a timely manner.”
Boddington said the “general mood” at the union meeting where members discussed the offer was that, for most, “It’s not really about the money, it’s about work conditions”.
He said more people needed to be employed so “we’re not the ones that have to always fill in the cracks”.
Boddington said he was striking because he wanted the Government to “hear us”.
“It’s really about sending a message to [the] Government and to our employers that the situation is intolerable and they need to listen to us and they need to fix the system.
“For me personally, if they don’t sort out the system, I will probably retire from public service and just go full-time private. You don’t have these frustrations in the private sector.”
Boddington said he was the only cardiologist at Tauranga Hospital specialising in electrical cardiology.
“There’s a danger if they don’t get another person, that the service that I do will just fall away and cease to exist.”
Boddington, who emigrated from South Africa 20 years ago, said he believed the health system “relies” on immigrant workers “because they can’t keep New Zealanders”.
“The salaries are not competitive; we lose so many young doctors, who go to Australia and elsewhere because they can get a better salary. And if New Zealand doesn’t keep pace with other countries … they won’t get people coming. And they’re just going to lose more and more people.”
In an ASMS media release, president Julian Vyas said many colleagues had indicated they had “had enough” and were looking to leave the public health system either for overseas postings or to the private sector.
“This will leave the public sector further short-staffed, meaning patients have even less access to care, and senior staff even more fatigued and burned out. If there is no end in sight, even more specialists are likely to leave. The first battle is to get our pay just to keep up with CPI.”
The Bay of Plenty Times Weekend contacted Te Whatu Ora for a response to Boddington’s comments on Wednesday.
Yesterday, a spokesperson said Te Whatu Ora and the union had agreed not to comment further on their current discussions, which started yesterday and are “ongoing at this time”.
In a Herald report on August 21, Te Whatu Ora chief people officer Andrew Slater said they had received strike notices for September 5, 13 and 21.
Slater said Te Whatu Ora had made a fair offer, “and we’re disappointed it has not been accepted”, but respected union members’ right to strike.
“We will continue to work with ASMS towards agreeing a settlement and to see if the strike can be averted,” Slater said.
“In the meantime, contingency planning is under way to ensure safe and appropriate care for patients [if] action does go ahead.”
He said Te Whatu Ora’s offer would see all senior doctors get a $15,000 to $26,000 pay increase and a lump sum of about $4000.
This offer would top up a settlement the ASMS accepted last year, which included a $6000 increase in all pay scales and a $6000 lump sum.
The Herald reported senior medical officers, New Zealand’s most experienced and well-trained doctors, have an average total salary of $318,000 including additional payments for shift work and superannuation.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
She repurposes op-shop gowns to highlight her creative skills and sustainable fashion.