Wednesday, Oct 5, 2016
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Strike to affect hospital care BY COLIN ENGELBRECHT COLIN.E@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
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Ashburton people are likely to face significant disruptions in their healthcare when a planned strike goes ahead later this month. On October 18 at 7am, resident doctors will strike for 48 hours over rosters that have required working over 10-hour shifts for up to 12 consecutive days. Michael Frampton, Canterbury District Health Board (DHB) general manger of people and capability, said of the 488 resident medical officers employed, eight work at Ashburton Hospital. “The Canterbury DHB is doing everything it can to minimise the impact of the Resident Doctors’ Association’s planned 48 hour industrial action. “We will be engaging with clinicians from across the wider Canterbury health system, including senior doctors and nurses, allied health professionals, midwives, and primary care teams, to arrange for them to help provide cover during the union’s proposed strike.”
Frampton said urgent services like emergency care will still be operating. However, he said some elective surgeries and outpatient appointments may have to be cancelled and affected people would be contacted to reschedule. “We will also be reminding the people of Canterbury that they can access #carearoundtheclock by phoning their general practice team 24/7 in the first instance,” he said. A spokesperson from the New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association (NZRDA) said they did not know how many doctors will be participating in the strike. “We don’t have the exact numbers, but it will affect Ashburton significantly,” the spokesperson said. Julie Patterson, lead CEO for the 20 DHBs’ workforce and employment relations programme, said there is a contingency processes to make sure hospitals can still provide safe service. She said nationally over 3700 resident doctors were employed and the NZ-
RDA had given a strike notice covering around 2600. Patterson said some DHBs were being advised that a number of doctors did not intend to strike but to ensure patient safety some non-urgent and elective surgeries would be rescheduled. The NZRDA wants the number of consecutive night shifts to be reduced to four, from seven, and the maximum number of consecutive days worked cut down to 10, from 12. The DHBs have offered changes, however the NZRDA said it did not go far enough. Patterson said they offered a number of options during the negotiations, including a pay rise and a lump sum payment and commitments to changing work hours. She said the commitments would be part of a nationally overseen process and would look at the most concerning rosters, insisting the first changes to rosters would be implemented no later than June 2017.
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