Another strike for Northland DHB

The Northland District Health Board’s anaesthetic technicians intend for 24 hours from 7am tomorrow and again on Thursday next week. strike employed at Northland District Health Board have given notice of strike action. The strikes will take place over two days: Wednesday October 3 and Thursday October 11. Each strike will begin at 7am and continue for 24 hours.

DHB chief executive Dr Nick Chamberlain said anaesthetic technicians were an integral part of theatre teams, any operation requiring general anaesthetic demanding that a technician be present.

The DHB had met with the union in mediation on Thursday to explore an offer. A settlement wasn’t reached but more mediated negotiation was scheduled for today.

Dr Chamberlain said strike action would have an impact for patients booked for elective surgery. Those expecting to have surgery tomorrow had been contacted and advised their procedure may be rescheduled.

The DHBs would provide lifepreserving surgeries throughout any strike as part of an agreement with APEX.

“We apologise to our patients, who may potentially have treatment disrupted. If the strike cannot be averted we will re-book them as soon as we can,” Dr Chamberlain added.

Any patients with queries should phone (09) 430-4100 for more information.

Dr Deborah Powell, national secretary of the Association of Professional and Executive Employees (APEX), said the DHB’s anaesthetic technician workforce was in crisis.

“The Northland DHB cannot fill its five full-time vacancies out of a total of 19 positions; the service is at best stuttering along, with one-quarter of positions vacant.

“Around 50 surgeries have been cancelled in the past two months as a direct result of insufficient anaesthetic technicians,” she said.

“The cause of the recruitment and retention problem is clear. Other employers are paying anaesthetic technicians up to $30,000 more than the (Northland) DHB.”

After 10 months of bargaining the DHB had offered a “paltry” overall increase of 2.43 per cent.

“We need a settlement that enables the DHB to retain its current staff and recruit to fill vacancies, and this simply won’t do it,” Dr Powell said.

Dr Chamberlain said there was a national shortage of anaesthetic technicians, but until recently the DHB had had a full complement.

“We have fast-tracked

further recruitment of technicians, and in the interests of ‘training our own’ we have increased the number of trainees from three to six,” he said.