Harsh words as strike ends

The first of two nationwide junior doctors’ strikes is at an end, but it seems the drama is set to continue.

In the latest edition of the union-hospital administrators’ tit-for-tat, district health boards (DHBs) have gone on the offensive, issuing a strongly worded rebuke of the New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association (NZRDA).

The DHBs were unimpressed by criticism of their level of engagement in negotiations over the past 11 months as the two sides attempt to hammer out the terms of a new Multi-Employer Collective Agreement (Meca).

On day one of this week’s 48-hour nationwide strike, NZRDA national president Dr Courtney Brown described her time at the negotiating table with DHB representatives as ‘‘immensely frustrating’’.

She claimed the union had been asked to intervene in several cases where DHB management had contacted individual doctors asking whether they were a part of the union and whether they intended to strike.

‘‘A number of our members have found this threatening and intimidating. As a union, we have the right to strike and that right should be respected,’’ Brown said.

However, DHBs’ spokesman Dr Peter Bramley has disputed the union’s assertions around the initiation of clawbacks from the previous Meca.

‘‘We wholeheartedly reject the NZRDA’s assertions that DHBs want to remove existing rights of their members. It is simply untrue for the NZRDA to claim that DHBs want to move RMOS around the country at will,’’ Bramley said.

While the expired Meca terms were still being observed, DHBs were required to offer those terms to doctors switching between organisations, but once March 1 flicks over on the calendar, that requirement will disappear.

Bramley said DHBs wanted rostering decisions to be made by local clinicians and hospital managers, ‘‘not at the NZRDA head office’’, and that the decisions would ensure continuity of patient care and a safe working environment.

Striking doctors are set to walk off the job for a second time on January 29 and 30.