Doctors' two-day strike ends amid tensions

Junior doctors ended a two-day strike today amidst growing tension between them and senior doctors who are upset at the timing of the next proposed strike.

More than 2000 junior doctors returned to work at 7am today after walking off the job at 7am on Tuesday, putting pressure on remaining hospital staff and facilities.

Just hours into their industrial action their union, Resident Doctors Association (RDA), announced a second strike would take place on May 7 and 8.

Senior doctors had planned to hold a critical meeting about finalising their own pay terms with DHBs on May 8.

The senior union, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), said the strike was likely to disrupt the meeting and postponing it would be difficult as it came at the end of a two-year negotiation process.

The RDA said it didn't know about the meeting when it set the strike dates – a claim ASMS chief executive Ian Powell said was implausible.

"If this timing is not done by design, then it is certainly done with indifference over effect," he said.

Mr Powell also rubbished claims that some hospitals were nearing closing point because of a shortage of doctors.

RDA national secretary Deborah Powell this week singled out a handful of hospitals – Wanganui and Southland in particular – as being at crisis point because of recruitment problems and a lack doctors.

She said wage strikes by the doctors would hopefully press district health boards (DHBs) into taking action to avert such a crisis.

But Mr Powell, who represents senior doctors, was critical of junior doctors' strike actions and said the hospital closure comments were "unhelpful".

The junior doctors are seeking a payrise of 30 per cent over the next three years.

Hospitals appeared to run smoothly over the last 48 hours with hospitals reporting they coped well.

District health boards said on Tuesday hospitals were 90 per cent full on average, and on Wednesday an average of between 75 per cent and 80 per cent of beds were occupied.

The boards' contingency planner Anne Aitcheson told Radio New Zealand this was achieved by sending home all patients who were able to go, and through the planned cut in admissions during the strike.

The union representing junior doctors said the money being spent on providing cover during strike action would go a long way towards settling its pay claim.

Dr Powell estimated $12 million a day was being spent by the boards, and said the money was there to invest in the permanent workforce.

But the boards' spokesman David Meates disputed the estimate and said the cost of the strike would not be known until the industrial action was over.

Meanwhile new methods of settling pay disputes in the health sector were being called for by two patient safety watchdogs. Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson and Medical Council chairman Professor John Campbell spoke out yesterday about their concern to the safety of patients during the strike.

Mr Paterson told the New Zealand Herald health-worker strikes caused people a great deal of psychological distress, especially those waiting for elective surgery or an outpatient visit. There was also evidence of actual physical harm.

"It's entirely unsatisfactory to have what are becoming rolling strikes. It's a totally unacceptable situation for the public and for all the people working in hospitals who are left to pick up the pieces."

Prof Campbell said alternatives to strikes – which he termed a failure of the current wage-setting process – must be explored.

- NZPA