SDHB begins emergency planning after news of doctors’ strike

THE Southern District Health Board (SDHB) is in emergency planning mode after resident doctors chose the middle of the holiday period to give notice of strike action.

A nationwide, 48hour stopwork by the 3300 members of the Resident Doctor’s Association (RDA) will begin at 7am on January 15 unless agreement can be reached beforehand.

‘‘The RDA would be available for mediation talks but we haven’t heard of any,’’ RDA national secretary Deborah Powell said yesterday.

‘‘It would be very easy for them to settle.

‘‘They just need to take their clawbacks off the table.’’

Resident doctors or resident medical officers (RMO), are often referred to as junior doctors, their experience rangings from newly qualified doctors to those with more than 12 years’ experience.

District health boards and the RDA began negotiations for a new collective agreement 12 months ago.

Dr Powell said employers did not table their claim until September, and it contained several downgrades in terms and condi tions of employment.

Three months of bargaining had brought no moderation by the employers, she said.

SDHB chief executive Chris Fleming said planning for the strike was under way.

‘‘Our staff will work to minimise the impact of any potential strike,’’ he said.

The pending industrial action has also been supported by a television advertising campaign.

‘‘Resident doctors decided to do it because they had massive public support for the safer hours campaign and the residents really appreciated that.

‘‘That led them to take out TV ads to let people know what was going on,’’ Dr Powell said.

Some DHBs, including Southern, were still struggling to meet the safer staffing rosters agreed in 2016, she said

The SDHB still needed to fill six RMO positions.

‘‘There is a real problem attracting RMOs in to surgery at the moment due to concern about lifestyle and worklife balance,’’ Dr Powell said.

‘‘Dunedin has been hit particularly hard, though, and I think that relates to the culture in surgical services.

‘‘It’s a complex situation there.’’