Health Board loses bid to prevent strike next week

4.30pm - by MATHEW DEARNALEY

Critically-ill patients are expected to be flown out of Auckland from tonight after the failure of legal action to head off a potentially crippling strike by hospital radiographers.

The Employment Court, despite acknowledging possible dire consequences from the strike, said this afternoon that it was unable to find fault with a union notice to the Auckland District Health Board of industrial action against an essential service.

"I regret this may have dire consequences if planning turns out to have been insufficient," said Judge Barrie Travis.

But he said the board "failed to establish an arguable case at any level" in its bid for an injunction to stop radiographers from striking for four days from 7am on Tuesday.

Although the strike notice may have left the board's contingency planners confused about just how many of its 100 radiographers intended walking out, he said there was nothing in the Employment Relations Act requiring their union to provide membership lists.

The board has made extensive arrangements for most trauma patients and others needing x-rays or other diagnostic scanning to be sent to neighbouring Middlemore Hospital, which is reducing elective surgery to make way for emergency cases.

Those needing neurosurgery, ventilation, or possibly even a liver transplant will be flown to hospitals as far away as Wellington and Christchurch, while the Auckland board has postponed thousands of its own non-urgent surgical and other procedures.

Senior clinicians expressed concern in affidavit evidence to the court about a potential disaster.

They said some patients may be too ill to transfer out of Auckland, and that long weekends often left hospitals with heavy trauma caseloads on the following Tuesday.

Board chief operating officer Marek Stepniak accused the radiographers' union outside the court of being "reckless and unethical" in refusing to exempt members from the strike to provide emergency cover.

He said the board was likely to start moving some patients out of Auckland tonight, and more tomorrow, but he could not estimate how many.

Union secretary Dr Deborah Powell said her members had never refused genuine requests for cover if employers sat down with them to discuss contingency plans, and that the board had about 20 non-union radiographers able to provide a better service than at weekends.

She said she remained ready to talk to the health board in a bid to reach a settlement at any time over this long weekend, having cancelled holiday plans.

Mr Stepniak also said he had cancelled a trip to Thailand, ready to return to talks at any time between now and Tuesday.

The union has yet to receive a formal response to a reduction from its initial claim for a 10.3 per cent pay rise, against a 2 per cent offer.

Neither it nor the board will disclose the new figure, said to be the same as a settlement reached this week for radiographers at the neighbouring Waitemata District Health Board.

But Mr Stepniak said on Thursday that it remained far too high for an organisation facing a $61 million deficit.

Further reading
Feature: Our sick hospitals