DHBS ‘dragged’ into deal with doctors
The country’s district health boards are accused of being ‘dragged kicking and screaming’ towards a settlement with junior doctors.
However the DHBS claim they have invested millions into one of the most significant changes to junior doctor contracts in years.
The NZ Resident Doctor’s Association and hospitals agreed to a settlement on Tuesday following lengthy negotiations. The DHB bargaining team will recommend settlement to chief executives at a meeting on Thursday before the deal is confirmed by union members.
The drawn-out talks have lasted more than a year and nearly reached crisis point with the NZ Resident Doctor’s Association contract set to expire at the end of February.
Documents gained via the Official Information Act offer an insight that correspondence between the two parties has been strained in recent months.
In a letter to the union, associate for the 20 DHBS Kevin Mcfadgen estimated their offer was an additional $88 million. He later hit out at the union’s ‘‘threats’’ of strike action.
He said the DHBS had moved a ‘‘significant way’’ to meet the union’s health and safety claims. It was the ‘‘most significant change to RMO terms and conditions in decades’’.
NZRDA secretary Dr Deborah Powell responded to Mcfadgen’s talk of threats by saying the DHBS had invited the strikes. She acknowledged the DHBS had made progress, but they ‘‘certainly have not come willingly’’.
‘‘We accept that the DHBS have come to safer rostering through what could be described as a ‘dragged kicking and screaming’ process.’’
Powell said the first strike could have been avoided had the health boards displayed greater willingness to compromise.
She also accused the DHBS of taking a ‘‘retaliatory stance’’ towards doctors.
Mcfadgen said the suggestion that they invited the strike was ‘‘unsustainable’’. He said a strike was solely intended to compel the employer to accept the union position.
‘‘We may each have views on the approach the other has taken and its impact on the nature of engagement, but those are the business of the other party.’’