Court bid to stop hospital strike

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Auckland's health board is going to court this morning, desperate to avert a strike that is delaying hundreds of operations and thousands of clinical appointments in the region's hospitals.

Efforts to reach a mediated settlement in a bitter pay dispute with x-ray and scanning technicians were adjourned late yesterday, leaving officials pinning their hopes on winning an injunction from the Employment Court.

Lawyers for the Auckland District Health Board will attack the legitimacy of a notice by the radiographers' union, the Association of Professional and Executive Employees, of a four-day strike from 7am on Tuesday.

Health Minister Annette King is refusing to comment, but Director-General of Health Karen Poutasi wrote letters to both sides yesterday urging them to agree on emergency cover to ensure patient safety.

Union secretary Dr Deborah Powell said last night that her side had been concentrating on trying to gain a settlement.

But it would be prepared to discuss emergency cover if the board did not gain an injunction today.

She was responding to criticism by the board's chief operating officer, Marek Stepniak, of the union's "unprecedented" refusal to meet senior doctors to discuss contingency needs during the strike.

Mr Stepniak said the board had only seven non-union radiographers to run essential services, but Dr Powell said she could name 19 available to provide a higher level of cover than that available during normal weekends.

She questioned a proposal to send Auckland's liver transplant unit - the only one in the country - to Christchurch if necessary during the strike, as she said it relied on sonography technicians not involved in the dispute.

Dr Powell said the union reduced a pay rise claim yesterday to the level of a settlement reached on Wednesday for about 25 radiographers at the neighbouring Waitemata District Health Board.

"It's a lot less than our initial claim for 10.3 per cent," she said.

She would not disclose the amount, saying Waitemata had insisted on confidentiality so as not to put pressure on Auckland.

Mr Stepniak, whose board faces a $61 million deficit compared with an expected $12.5 million funding shortfall at Waitemata, said the amended claim remained "substantially outside our ability to pay".

In another contentious twist, his board has - under the court's direction - issued injunction papers to the 100 or so radiographers, as they are listed as second defendants behind the union and could therefore be liable for damages.

Dr Powell said it was highly unusual for an employer to cite staff as defendants, but receiving the papers at work had stiffened their resolve rather than scaring them into submission.

"It's bully-boy tactics," she said.

"An injunction won't solve the dispute - the DHB should start talking to them about their reasonable claims."

Mr Stepniak said his side was "not into suing our staff", but legal action was a last resort against a potentially crippling strike.

The board is waiting until late today to decide whether to fly critically ill patients to hospitals as far away as Christchurch and Wellington for liver and neurosurgical operations, or to Hamilton for ventilation support or neonatal care for premature babies.

Most patients needing x-rays during next week's strike are likely to be sent to Middlemore Hospital, which is not directly involved in the dispute.







That strike has forced the cancellation of non-urgent surgery and other treatment for about 250 patients.

The health board is also postponing at least a further 1000 non-urgent operations to clear the decks for emergencies in the absence of radiographers.

Six-year-old Sam Lewis, of Huia, is one of hundreds of people who have already had their treatment postponed.

He was waiting for a bone scan at Auckland Hospital on Monday when it was evacuated because of a bomb scare and he and his mother, Susan Lewis, were sent home to wait for another appointment.

Mrs Lewis says she is not overly concerned, and that medical staff were most apologetic, but the strike threat means Sam will have to wait another three weeks for a scan to determine the cause of neck pains.