Stressed senior doctors at Whakatane Hospital have rejected an offer from Pacific Health made after they called for relief from their heavy workload.
Chairman of senior medical staff Des Collins yesterday said the decision to reject the offer was made at a two-hour stopwork meeting attended by 20 doctors.
Mr Collins would
not give any details about Pacific Health's offer.
However, he said staff unanimously agreed to continue negotiations with the Bay of Plenty District Health Board through a mediator.
"It's pretty disappointing. It (the offer) was just stalling tactics, which they are well known for," he said.
Mr Collins said the specialists at the hospital worked on a high frequency roster, without the registrar back-up of larger hospitals.
"When we merged with Tauranga three years ago we were promised, by the board, that the working conditions will be bought up to Tauranga standards but it has not happened."
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Ian Powell said Pacific Health's offer was deficient in that it did not provide adequate compensation for working high frequency rosters and had inadequate protection against the unsafe hours specialists were asked to work.
- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)
