Radiographers announce next action

By MARTIN JOHNSTON

Auckland radiographers who are disrupting hospitals and patients with their second strike in a fortnight are talking about a third.

"If we don't get this settled, the industrial action will escalate," their union secretary, Deborah Powell, said last night.

The strike, which began at 7am today at Auckland, Starship, Green Lane and National Women's Hospitals, is for 48 hours. It follows a four-day strike two weeks ago.

The next strike will be for 48 hours and start in a fortnight.

The 90 or so striking radiographers want a 10.3 per cent pay rise. The Auckland District Health Board has offered 2 per cent - after the Government demanded that cost-growth at deficit-ridden boards be kept within 2 per cent.

Dr Powell renewed the union's call for arbitrators to settle the dispute.

"As soon as they agree to arbitration we will lift all strike notices without hesitation," she said.

But board chief executive Graeme Edmond again said no.

"The issues stem beyond just getting an arbitrator," he said, citing the constraints imposed by the board's $61 million deficit. "Arbitration is not going to change those."

Elective (non-urgent) surgery has been cancelled during the strike at all the board's hospitals except National Women's, affecting about 100 patients. Hundreds of outpatients needing x-rays or scans have also had their appointments cancelled.

But other hospitals in the region have cancelled a far lower proportion of their elective surgery than during the last strike. This is worrying senior doctors, since all the hospitals are busier than a fortnight ago.

"There's a general feeling that we may have over-called it last time," said Dr David Galler, head of acute care at Middlemore Hospital, the main back-up during the strike. "This time maybe we've under-called it."

Middlemore's intensive-care unit is full and Auckland Hospital's 14-bed unit is expected to have about 10 patients today.

Some neuro-surgery patients who would have come to Auckland earlier this week were sent to Wellington Hospital instead.

Unlike before the last strike, no patients have been transferred out of the region from Auckland Hospital's intensive-care unit, but Mr Edmond said this could change if there was a surge of major trauma cases.

The board is asking patients to see a GP and avoid hospital emergency departments if they can, but says they should still call an ambulance for emergencies.

Many senior doctors have backed the call for arbitration.

Of 159 Auckland board doctors who replied to a poll run by intensive-care specialist Dr Les Galler, 91 per cent thought arbitrators should be called in.

They also agreed with his concern that health workers who provided essential services "have been given the right to strike".

"Failure to reach settlement by negotiation should result in compulsory arbitration. The Government would then need to adjust the funding to cover any impact on the bottom line," he said.

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