Hospitals braced for radiographers' strike

Phil Borrie thinks it is not unreasonable for radiographers to have similar pay rates nationally. Picture / Alan Gibson

Bay of Plenty radiologist Dr Phil Borrie is bracing for the beginning of the radiographers' strike today.

"Without them, we don't have any films," he said. "They are integral to the diagnosis of medical problems."

Dr Borrie is managing director of Bay Radiology, one of several private providers where the Bay of Plenty District Health Board may be forced to send patients for x-rays, scans and ultrasounds it cannot provide during the three-day radiographers' strike.

The board's 32 radiographers are among 260 at seven health boards who are striking for equal pay with radiographers at other boards.

The other boards involved are Lakes, Tairawhiti, Hutt Valley, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

Radiographers at all but Tairawhiti, which runs Gisborne Hospital, plan two more one-day strikes next week.

Dr Borrie said the strike's impact on his clinic was uncertain but he supported the reason for the walkout.

"It's not unreasonable for the radiographers to have similar pay rates to their colleagues elsewhere in the country."

He said radiographers trained in the Bay of Plenty tended to leave for districts such as Waikato that paid more. "It makes it harder for us to attract staff."

The boards spent yesterday finalising plans for coping with the strike.

Thousands of patients may be affected as hospitals postpone or cancel elective surgical procedures and warn non-urgent patients to stay away from emergency departments.

Dr Dwayne Crombie, spokesman for the boards, said it was too early to gauge the strike's impact on emergency departments, but up to 1000 elective surgeries had been rescheduled.

Affected hospitals promise to provide radiology services for patients in life-threatening situations, after the radiographers' union, the Association of Professionals and Executive Employees (Apex) agreed to have staff on call.

Anne Aitcheson, co-ordinator of contingency planning for the boards, said other boards had offered to take patients.

"The hospitals throughout New Zealand are running reasonably full at the moment so it increases the pressure," she said.

The Bay board, which runs Tauranga and Whakatane hospitals, is predicting unprecedented disruption, saying 80 per cent of patients that come through the hospital doors require radiographers' services.

The Lakes board, responsible for Rotorua and Taupo hospitals, has rescheduled 60 elective surgeries over the next fortnight.

The Apex union is seeking an increase in the automatic salary scale for most radiographers involved in the dispute of about $4000 to $6000.

The current salary scale is $33,371-$43,791, which it wants raised to $37,188-$49,875, plus an increase in a discretionary maximum paid by boards to radiographers with postgraduate qualifications.

The boards said the two sides had agreed on an automatic pay scale of $42,000-$57,000, but it would be too costly to implement in a one-year deal sought by the union.

The union said it offered a two-year term which was rejected. National secretary Dr Deborah Powell said boards left radiographers no choice but to strike. "Doctors and nurses are paid the same base salary regardless of where they work in New Zealand, and the same should also be applied to radiographers."