Auckland hospitals all quiet on emergency front

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

A row of six empty chairs told the story of the radiographers' strike yesterday.

The blue armchairs in a corridor at Auckland Hospital's emergency department are reserved for the walking wounded - people with injuries such as sprained ankles.

At 1pm, six hours after 80 of the Auckland District Health Board's 100 or so radiographers started their four-day strike, all the seats were vacant.

"There's usually someone in each of these chairs," said emergency medicine specialist Dr Peter Jones. "We've had nowhere near as many patients as usual."

Thousands of appointments for non-urgent elective surgery and other procedures have been cancelled because of the strike at Auckland, Green Lane, National Women's and Starship hospitals, which has severely restricted access to x-rays and medical scanning needed by the majority of patients.

Up to 10 extra ambulances are on the road to divert emergency patients away from Auckland Hospital, mainly to Middlemore and North Shore hospitals.

The radiographers' union and the Health Board were both open to the prospect of more talks yesterday, but neither had plans to initiate any.

Yet each continued to criticise the other over whether strikers were needed for emergency cover, and how to break the pay dispute.

The board says lives are at risk since the union will not give emergency cover.

The union says the board has enough non-striking radiographers for weekend-level cover, and it will help with unforeseen events.

Union secretary Dr Deborah Powell estimates the Auckland and Counties Manukau boards are spending more than $300,000 on patient transfers and other strike costs, even excluding lost state revenue from cancelled surgery.

Paying the 10.3 per cent pay rise sought would cost about $360,000 over two years, she said.

But Marek Stepniak, of the Auckland board, which has offered 2 per cent, said the strike-related costs should not add much to its $61 million deficit and the board would try to catch up on cancelled surgery.

The bigger financial risk was in agreeing to the radiographers' claim, because it would fuel higher pay claims from other staff, he said.

Middlemore - girded with staff working overtime and extra shifts and some Auckland Hospital workers as well - saw 70 patients in its emergency department in the 12 hours to noon, compared with about 210 in a normal 24-hour period.

Six had been diverted from Auckland Hospital.

Both hospitals are glad they have been fairly quiet so far, which doctors say may be the result of people heeding the call to see a GP unless their condition is truly urgent.

But it is still early in the strike. "There's the potential for things to go majorly wrong," said Dr Colin McArthur, head of intensive care at Auckland Hospital.

His 14-bed department had only two patients yesterday, after sending four to other cities since Sunday.

Two others, neurosurgery and orthopaedic patients, have been shifted to Middlemore.

Last night, the St John Ambulance Service had taken 15 patients, who normally would have gone to Auckland Hospital, to Middlemore or North Shore. Between five and 10 were taken to private accident and medical clinics, and two were transferred to Whangarei.

The St John's northern region medical director, Dr Tony Smith, said six heart patients expected to have a low requirement for x-rays were taken to Green Lane Hospital to keep Auckland Hospital free for North Shore and Middlemore patients who did not need x-rays.

Auckland Hospital's intensive care specialists have called on the Government to intervene since its 2 per cent cap on cost growth underpins the pay offer to radiographers.

National Party leader Bill English echoed their call, saying Health Minister Annette King had wide power in the health system.

He cited her ban on filming a birth for a porn movie. But Prime Minister Helen Clark said governments had not intervened in the sector for years and she had seen no suggestion that the hospitals' strike contingency plans were inadequate.

Further reading
Feature: Our sick hospitals