Radiographers' strike causes big headache for officials

The radiographers strike caused major disruption for Northland health officials and "medium" problems for patients, but the region's hospitals coped well.
About 30 Northland radiographers - medical radiation technologists - withdrew all labour, except for life or limb threatening cases, over the weekend and on Tuesday, affecting services at Whangarei, Kaitaia and Bay of Islands hospitals.
The radiographers have rejected an unbackdated increase of 1 per cent with another 1 per cent later this year and are seeking backdated pay as well as time in lieu for days spent on professional development courses.
The strike affected all patients who needed an x-ray or scan, including mammograms, and saw all elective surgery canned on Tuesday. It led to hundreds of patients having their appointments postponed.
Northland DHB clinical services general manager Nick Chamberlain said the industrial action caused medium-sized disruption for the patients, but major hassles for the health board and its workers. Despite all the extra work required the hospitals coped well, but more industrial action was planned for this weekend, and from 5pm to 8am the next morning every day after that for two weeks.
Dr Chamberlain said patient clinics and elective surgery would be rescheduled and it was important for patients to ensure their new appointment was made and that they attended.
"We had hundreds of patients booked in for things like x-rays and mammograms. My big concern is that it may have been somebody who had to build up the courage to have their mammogram test but may be put off rescheduling because it was postponed. We don't want those people to miss out," he said.
To help the hospitals cope during the upcoming action it was important that people only attended emergency departments for genuine emergencies.
"While it was only a medium disruption for patients, it was a major disruption for us. The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to plan and organise and for those staff that have to pick up the extra work is fairly significant," Dr Chamberlain said.