Junior doctors are calling for the removal of "fatiguing, frankly dangerous and unsafe" working conditions as another 49-hour strike kicked off across the country.
Members of the New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association (NZRDA) took to the picket line at 7am today. The strike will run until 8am on Saturday.
It follows a new offer from Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand to NZRDA which would provide a pay increase to every Resident Medical Officers (RMOs) covered by the agreement, with an average pay increase offer of 18%.
Speaking from the picket line outside Auckland City Hospital in Newmarket, Dr Rosa Tobin Stickings said the latest offer from Te Whatu Ora "hasn't gone far enough" for specialty doctors.
"These are [in] psychiatry, radiation oncology, public health, pathology. These are specialities that are already undervalued and in short supply.
"We need to value them and invest in them like we're investing in the rest of our workforce."
She told Breakfast there is a "significant issue" around safety of working hours in New Zealand.
"Currently on our contract you can work a 10 day stretch but then sandwiched in the middle of that you work a weekend where you can be rostered up to 15 hours of the Saturday and the Sunday.
"It's fatiguing, frankly dangerous and unsafe," she said.
Stickings said the NZRDA are looking for a commitment from Te Whatu Ora to "phase these out".
Today's action follows a 25-hour strike on May 7, which saw 2500 resident medical officers walk off the job and join picket lines outside hospitals in Wellington, Whangārei, Hamilton, Rotorua, Hawke's Bay, Palmerston North, Christchurch and Dunedin.
The NZRDA are now in facilitation, which Stickings said is slow progress that is "just not happening quick enough".
Dr Nina Sue said the conditions are "really challenging".
"We're having to choose what we can and can't do. We're being pulled in several directions at the same time. We're trying to support our GPs in primary care, trying to look after the patients in front of us and trying to help other services as well.
"How can we help our doctors to help other doctors, to help our nurses, to help GPs, help our patients in the community and in the hospital.
"This is a problem that has been decades in the making, and unfortunately it could take decades and decades perhaps for us to come out of this situation."
Sue said the focus over the last six months has been on health targets, rather than the workforce.
"It's the junior doctors who are on the ground, in the hospitals, in the community who are actually going to do the mahi, to get our wait lists down in the emergency departments, surgery departments and specialist appointments."
Health New Zealand responds
Chief people officer Health New Zealand Andrew Slater said Te Whatu Ora "remains committed to settling the collective agreement for half of our Resident Medical Officers (RMOs), represented by the New Zealand Resident Doctors Association".
"We are deeply disappointed that facilitation this week has not seen us reach agreement.
"We are further disappointed the NZRDA continues to announce new strikes, despite facilitation continuing and against the recommendation of the Employment Relations Authority."
Slater said doctors and other health professionals will still be available during any strike action to "ensure the continued availability of health services for those who need them".
He advised patients that:
- All emergency departments will remain open and hospital patients will receive safe care.
- Unless you are contacted directly, please attend any scheduled outpatient appointment or treatment.
- People with non-urgent ailments or injuries should contact their GP in the first instance. Anyone unsure about whether they need emergency department care should contact their GP or call Healthline (0800 611 116) for free advice.
Slater said a third strike has been called for Thursday, May 30 beginning at 7am and continuing until Saturday, June 1 at 8am.
SHARE ME