Doctors strike trans-Tasman comparison
They’re the doctors you’re most likely to talk to during a hospital visit and they’re walking off the job for 25 hours.
More than 80 doctors waved cardboard signs outside Waikato Hospital yesterday morning, calling for a fairer pay agreement as they marked the beginning of a strike.
As part of the New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association (NZRDA) collective action, 300 doctors from Waikato Hospital joined force with more than 2000 others across the country.
Resident doctors are in the early stage of their medical career, it’s a title they can hold for an average of 10 years. NZRDA advocate Melissa Dobbyn said on a hospital visit, patients are most likely to directly interact with a resident doctor.
A total of 97% of the association’s members voted to strike after Health NZ Te Whatu Ora proposed options that would result in significant pay rises for some, but pay cuts or a pay freeze for nearly 600 registrars, including psychiatrists, oncologists and public health trainees.
Waikato region representative and radiation oncologist Dr Visharn Sathiyakumar said it’s not fair for anyone to get a pay cut.
“I know it might only be 300 doctors [affected by the cut], but the remaining 2300 of us are strong behind them.
“We think these specialities are severely underfunded and there's severe shortages and effectively it's going to destroy the training pipeline.”
Medical registrar Ester Joe - holding a sign saying the proposal was bananas and dressed accordingly - said it’s disappointing that the government that had promised to “reduce the ED wait times” is cutting doctors’ pay.
“There’s a lot of talk about hiring doctors from overseas, but our problem is retention. If you don’t retain the workforce that we've already trained, then they go somewhere else. And the existing workforce are left overworked and underpaid.”
Although Joe’s salary wouldn’t be affected directly by the newest contract, she said it would disincentivise medical registrars to keep upskilling themselves as pay increases for doctors who passed certain exams will be removed.
Janaka Hennayaka is on holiday from Australia and joined his old colleagues to show solidarity.
With a sign saying “NZ Trained, Australia Paid”, he said he wants the government to know if his old colleagues aren’t treated fairly, he’ll take them with him to the Sunshine Coast.
Hennayaka said he was trained in Auckland and worked in Waikato Hospital for three years before moving across the ditch.
“It was a good three years.”
But he said in Australia, the pay and working conditions were better.