KEY POINTS:
District health boards and the radiographers' union Apex will go into talks tomorrow to try to avert a nine-day strike due to start on Friday.
A DHB spokesman said today he was hopeful a settlement could be reached or enough progress made to avert the action.
About 250 radiographers at seven district health boards plan to walk off the job from Friday afternoon to the early morning of November 20.
Initially, radiographers had planned to end their strike on November 14. However, they extended the length of their action last Friday.
Negotiations between the DHBs and Apex (Association of Professional and Executive Employees) have been dragging on for eight months, during which time radiographers have three times called strike action.
Last month radiographers thought they had reached an agreement but say the boards' CEOs vetoed the settlement at the last minute.
However, the DHBs denied a settlement had been reached, saying the positions of the two parties were still "significantly apart".
Seven DHBs -- Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Rotorua, Hutt Valley, Canterbury, Otago and Southland -- would be affected by the strike.
They are seeking parity in pay and conditions with about 1000 colleagues from the Waitemata, Auckland, Northland, Nelson-Marlborough, Waikato, Capital and Coast, Hawke's Bay, Wanganui and MidCentral health boards.
The DHB spokesman said today that all hospitals were continuing to implement contingency plans in the event of the strike going ahead.
The strike would severely impact on elective and out-patient services.
The spokesman would not talk about what would be discussed at tomorrow's meeting, but stressed patient safety was the concern of all DHBs.
- NZPA
