Strike opens serious rift between junior and senior doctors

Public hospitals are coping well during the national junior doctors strike but a serious rift has opened between the juniors and senior staff.

Hospital physicians, including leaders of the College of Physicians, yesterday condemned the two-day-old national strike, which has forced the postponement of about 17,000 outpatient appointments and non-urgent operations. They called for a ban on such industrial action by medical practitioners.

In a letter in the Press newspaper, the 19 Christchurch Hospital physicians urged that all doctors be put under an industrial arbitration system with no right to strike, similar to the set-up for police.

Many senior doctors saw the strike as a threat both to patient care and medical ethics, they said.

The junior doctors' union dismissed the physicians' suggestion. The senior doctors' union had reservations about it but suggested more hurdles be placed in front of health unions before they could take industrial action.

About 2000 of the country's 2500 junior doctors went on strike for five days at 7am on Thursday. Senior doctors are doing much of their work.

Talks collapsed on Thursday, both sides blaming the other for the dispute and claiming the next move lay with the other side.

"We're available if they want to meet with us," said strikers' representative Deborah Powell, secretary of the Resident Doctors Association.

But employers' advocate Nigel Murray, representing the 21 district health boards, said his team had told the union it was prepared to meet.

The boards have offered a 2.9 per cent pay rise and want a new committee to discuss rosters and hours. They maintain existing conditions are guaranteed.

The union fears the committee would gut the multi-employer collective agreement, which has served its members well. It wants reduced hours and a "small" pay rise.

The dispute is mainly over the boards' demand for a new way of negotiating. "We do not accept the health care of this country [being] controlled and organised across the industrial bargaining table," said Dr Murray.

All but 400 junior doctors were unionised on the eve of the strike, the employers said. On Thursday, around 600 - about a quarter of all junior doctors - turned up for work, although more than 40 per cent arrived at Auckland City Hospital. The numbers were similar yesterday.

The figures suggest about 200 union members are breaking the strike.

The boards' national co-ordinator of contingency planning, Anne Aitcheson, said yesterday went smoothly. Medical services, obstetrics and neonatal care had been under some pressure. "Otherwise the DHBs are managing well."

In a bid to minimise the demands on hospitals, people have been asked to see their GP rather than go to a hospital emergency department, except in real emergencies.

But there are fears that some, especially the elderly, might take the warning too far, risking their health.

"I'm a bit concerned," said Auckland City Hospital chief medical officer Dr David Sage. "I just want to emphasise we are open. We have got all our acute services running."