Doctors’ strike: Appointments postponed, some clinics to close

More than 5000 senior doctors nationally are striking on Thursday for 24 hours, including 206 at Tauranga Hospital. Photo / Mead Norton

Health New Zealand has reassured the public that plans are in place to ensure the continued delivery of hospital services tomorrow despite the senior doctors’ strike.

Senior doctors who are members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) are striking tomorrow from 12.01am to 11.59pm.

Nationally, more than 5000 senior doctors will go on strike, including 206 staff at Tauranga Hospital and 100 at Rotorua Hospital.

It comes after last-ditch mediation between Health NZ and the union failed to avert the strike.

Health NZ was “disappointed” the union did not take its latest offer to members, saying the offer was “fair and realistic” given “tight financial constraints”.

The union said the offer failed to take staffing shortages “seriously” and would “drive existing doctors away”.

Rotorua Hospital anaesthetist and ASMS executive member Andrew Robinson previously told the Rotorua Daily Post Health NZ’s offer was, in his view, “not really adequate” to recruit doctors, improve on-call rosters and “get rid of the gaps”.

“We’re just working in a system that is just perennially stretched and it’s getting quietly worse.”

Some clinics closed for patient safety

In a press release this morning, Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora chief clinical officer Dr Richard Sullivan said its hospitals and emergency departments would remain open during the strike action and other clinical staff, including doctors, would still be available to ensure the continued availability of health services.

To maintain patient safety, some clinics will be closed, he said.

Those who have a hospital appointment tomorrow are asked to go unless contacted directly to reschedule.

More than 5000 senior doctors nationally are striking on Thursday for 24 hours, including 100 at Rotorua Hospital. Photo / Andrew Warner

Any appointments deferred due to the strike action will be rescheduled for the next available opportunity, he said.

“We are concerned about the impacts the strike action will have on patients waiting for planned care and specialist appointments.”

Sullivan said an estimated 4300 planned procedures would be postponed due to the strike action.

“We value our doctors and want to do the best we can for them, but the reality is that Health NZ has limited budget available for salary settlements within its tight financial constraints.”

Sullivan said Health NZ was committed to reaching a settlement with ASMS and it had applied to the Employment Relations Authority for facilitation, which would give an independent party the opportunity to hear from both sides and make a recommendation.

“We are disappointed at the union’s refusal to take our offer to members as we believe this was a fair and reasonable offer given the budget constraints we have and the current economic environment.”

Under the offer rejected by the union, over the two years of the agreement, senior doctors would have received increases to base pay ranging from $8093 to $29,911 depending on experience. Additionally, those on step 4 to step 15 would have received an $8000 lump sum payment, Sullivan said.

ASMS previously told RNZ there was no point taking the offer to its members, as for most of them it was “worse than what was originally on the table”.

Most specialists were already near or at the top of the specialist scale, and for them, the offer worked out at “less than 0.77% on average”, ASMS executive director Sarah Dalton told RNZ.