Hospitals told to empty beds for strike

1.00pm

Hospitals should be planning to empty their beds for the start of a six-day countrywide strike by trainee doctors next month, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) has warned.

That was if the 21 district health boards (DHBs) cannot meet junior doctors in time to avert the potentially catastrophic strike, ASMS executive director Ian Powell said today.

The 2000 resident doctors plan to walk off the job at 7am on November 2, and stay away until 8am on November 8 -- a period which includes the usually busy Guy Fawkes season for emergency departments.

They are fed up with working conditions, such as being rostered on for 12 days in a row.

District health boards have indicated they are unable to meet the doctors before next Wednesday.

"This is disappointing, given the seriousness of the situation and we believe the DHBs should be prepared to burn the midnight oil and resume negotiations much earlier," Mr Powell said.

The ASMS, which represents senior doctors in public hospitals, has warned its members through its website that hospitals will simply not be able to cope with the strike.

"Given the total withdrawal nature of the strike, its length and national covering, effective contingency planning for patient safety is gutted," Mr Powell said.

' 'Every effort needs to be made now to ensure that when the strike begins, all hospital beds (or as many as realistically possible) are empty."

Only emergency admissions should be accepted in the days leading up to the strike, and all clinics and lists during the six days should be cancelled now.

"Hospitals cannot plan on transferring acutely unwell patients around the country," Mr Powell said.

Senior doctors should be prepared to stay overnight at hospitals and make alternative childcare arrangements.

Chris Poynter, spokesman for the 49 junior doctors at Rotorua Hospital, said they did not want a pay increase, but many doctors were leaving public hospitals to become locums.

"The main issues for why we are taking this action are health and safety related. The junior doctors are working inappropriately long shifts, which would be pretty dangerous in any line of work, much less one like ours where lives are constantly at stake," he said.

Lakes District Health Board spokeswoman Sue Wilkie said the hospital would need to cancel some elective surgery as the strike neared.

The hospital's first contingency planning meeting was held yesterday but details on how it would cope had not been sorted out.

DHBs spokeswoman chief executive Jean O'Callaghan said last night she was hopeful a negotiated settlement could be reached before the strike.

Age Concern Canterbury chief executive Andrew Dickerson said the strike would have implications well beyond its six-day duration.

Many elderly people who had spent a lot of time in pain and discomfort waiting for surgery would be further put out, he said.

- NZPA