Senior doctors have voted overwhelmingly in favour of limited industrial action, setting the stage for a national strike among senior staff at public hospitals next year.
The final shape of industrial action will not be decided until February 21, but the move is expected to force another boutof cancelled elective surgeries and outpatient clinics.
The move is expected to hit hospitals hard, with 90 per cent of union members - including specialists, surgeons and psychiatrists - employed by the district health boards.
Overall, 88 per cent voted in favour of limited industrial action, said Ian Powell, executive director of the senior doctors' union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.
Most voted for a mix of repeated two-day and week-long strikes. Fifteen per cent voted for indefinite strikes.
"This vote can only be described as the most damning indictment imaginable for the DHBs' industrial relations strategy and the failure of DHBs to comprehend and respond to New Zealand's medical workforce crisis. This is a vote of no confidence in their national leadership," Mr Powell said.
The vote to strike follows a lengthy impasse in national collective agreement negotiations, which started in May last year. The current collective agreement expired in June 2006.
Mr Powell said despite the overwhelming mandate for action, they have decided to defer giving formal notice until the union's next national executive meeting on February 21.
Unless resolved during further talks set down for February 11 and 12, industrial action will happen.
"The only thing we can say is it won't include acutes and emergencies and we would be giving a good eight weeks' notice to avoid elective lists being cancelled."
But the health boards are likely to try and avert a messy and costly strike action. The departure of lead CEO in the negotiations, Nigel Murray, in September was seen as a good thing.
The new lead CEO, David Meates, said he was pleased that the doctors had deferred strike action, "which reflects the energy and the time put into many constructive discussions between the DHBs and the union within the last month".
