Noticeboard

Noticeboard Sharing research and expertise

ASMS is proud to have research it commissioned from Motu on the gender pay gap published in the renowned international journal BMJ Open. The article – The gender wage gap among medical specialists: a quantitative analysis of the hourly pay of publicly employed senior doctors in New Zealand – suggested a gender pay gap of 12.5%. You can search for it on the BMJ Open website. ASMS’ research has also featured prominently at two virtual international conferences. Dr Charlotte Chambers spoke to the International Association on Workplace Bullying and Harassment Conference in Dubai recently, and gave a presentation on specialist burnout to the joint BMA/AMA conference on doctors’ health in London. She was also the keynote speaker at the recent RACS Conference Women’s Breakfast where she spoke about gender bias in medicine.

Smokefree 2025 submission

ASMS has made a submission to the Ministry of Health on its discussion document, Proposals for a Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan. It considers that proposed actions to reduce the appeal and addictiveness of tobacco products, reduce affordability, and reduce access to tobacco provide a strong basis for achieving the goal of less than 5% tobacco use prevalence in Aotearoa New Zealand by 2025.

Prevocational conference

Registrations have opened for the virtual 2021 Australian and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Forum on 18 and 19 October. The main themes of this year’s conference are transitions and innovations; health equity and cultural safety; professionalism and wellbeing. The keynote speakers are Dr Jason Frank (Canada), Dr Rhys Jones (Aotearoa), and Professor Trudie Roberts (UK). For more information, including details of how to submit an abstract, visit: prevocationalforum2021.com

Sick leave success

Unions are claiming a win after the Government passed a law lifting the minimum number days of paid sick leave to 10. It followed a strong campaign and 10,000-signature petition, which was strongly supported by ASMS, highlighting the importance for people to have the sick leave they need. The new law is due to take effect in August and will mean people currently receiving less than 10 days sick leave will have their entitlement increased to 10 days, effective on the anniversary of their employment. Under the ASMS DHB MECA agreement, employees are entitled to “reasonable leave” on full pay in the event of illness or an accident. Where an absence exceeds five working days, the employer may require the employee to produce a medical certificate.