Risk of staff fatigue amid rash of strikes, DHB warns
The Lakes DHB risks “fatiguing clinical staff” after being handed three strike notices in three weeks.
On Tuesday, APEX, New Zealand’s specialist allied, scientific and technical union announced plans for two 24-hour strikes, from 8am next Wednesday and 8am next Friday.
It came in the thick of the Resident Doctors’ Association’s national 48-hour strike, and just days after the RDA announced plans for a second strike between January 29 and 30.
Lakes DHB chief medical officer Dr Martin Thomas said although the hospital was coping well, “we cannot be complacent and underestimate the risks that the current situation creates”.
“When we do not have the normal levels of clinical staffing and support in place . . . the system lacks its normal resilience. The ongoing and cyclical industrial action by different professional groups presents more challenges. Senior management and clinical staff are now required to spend increasing amounts of time dealing with planning responses . . .
“We hope for a swift resolution to the multiple industrial actions as we risk fatiguing clinical staff who continue to maintain acute core services; a situation which itself generates patient safety issues.”
Unlike the junior doctors, the APEX strike is limited to the Lakes DHB, because anaesthetic technicians have district-specific agreements. The strike notice follows failed collective bargaining. Elective surgeries planned for January 23 and 25 will be rescheduled. Only lifepreserving surgeries will go ahead. Taupo¯ Hospital will not be affected. Meanwhile, Lakes DHB said its hospitals were running smoothly on the second day of RDA strike, describing emergency departments as “calm and settled”. Lakes DHB cancelled elective and scheduled surgeries, affecting 20 patients, and outpatient clinics, affecting 350 people.
Striking doctors volunteered at Cantabria Lifecare and Village in Springfield yesterday.
“Because we are taking services away from the community by being on strike, we thought we would give back to a hospital-level service, so it made sense to come here,” union member Dr Joel Winders said.