Hospitals ‘face crisis” as pay talks fold

Press, 23 March 1985, Page 7

Hospitals ‘face crisis” as pay talks fold

PA Wellington Hospitals are facing a crisis after the breakdown of wage talks between hospital doctors and their employers, the chairman of the Medical Association, Dr Dean Williams, has said. Dr Williams, who is also leader of the medical side of the negotiating committee, the Hospital Medical Officers’ Advisory Committee, said the committee had failed to agree on improving salaries and working conditions for specialist and junior doctors. “The official side of the committee was completely unmoved by staff suggestions, and we have reached a crisis,” he said. The staff side, representing hospital doctors, has now taken its case to the Higher Salaries Commission.

The committee has a staff side, representing hospital doctors, and an official side, made up of members of the Health Department, the employing hospital boards, and the State Services Commission.

“We make submissions, and if we reach agreement with the official side the agreement is forwarded to the Higher Salaries Commission and the Minister of Health to approve or disapprove,” Dr Williams said.

If the committee disagreed, each side could take submissions direct to the Higher Salaries Commission. Dr Williams said the level of unrest among hospital doctors was extraordinary and “they are voting with their feet rather than making a lot of public noise. They are getting on their bikes and going.” This applied both to specialists and to doctors coming through the system. Dr Williams said the disparity between working conditions in New Zealand and overseas, particularly in Australia, was so great that New Zealand could no longer hold specialists. The situation facing resident medical officers —

house surgeons, registrars and trainee interns — was also quite intolerable, he

About four years ago the Minister of Health authorised 50 additional junior staff to alleviate the critical situation of the time.

“Medical needs have increased to the stage where the same critical situation exists today,” Dr Williams said.

Under present remuneration arrangements, it was cheaper for a hospital board to employ a house surgeon to work up to an 80-hour week, than it was to employ a second person.

■ “Our submissions aimed to change that, so that a reasonable workload could be expected of a junior doctor and a greater number could be employed,” he said.

But the official side of the committee would not recognise this.

Resident medical officers in the Wellington area said yesterday that one of their options was industrial action, though there were no immediate plans for this.