About 4300 patients who will have their planned treatment postponed by the strike. Photo: 123RF
Last-ditch mediation between Health NZ and the senior doctors' union has failed to avert an unprecedented 24-hour strike.
More than 5000 members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists are set to walk off the job on 1 May, affecting about 4300 patients who will have their planned treatment postponed.
- Are you among patients affected by the strike on 1 May? Tell us your story by emailing Ruth.Hill@rnz.co.nz
Health NZ Te Whatu Ora deputy chief executive Cath Cronin said the agency was "deeply disappointed" that the union had refused to present its latest offer to its members following mediation on Thursday.
"We value our doctors and want to do the best we can for them, but the reality is that Health NZ has limited budget available for salary settlements within its tight financial constraints," she said.
Health NZ was urgently applying for facilitation, which would "give an independent party the opportunity to hear from both sides and make a recommendation".
"We believe we have been fair and realistic, including offering to remove the lowest pay steps for senior doctors."
Cronin said Te Whatu Ora had "heard" the union's concern regarding growing and retaining the senior doctor workforce.
Under Te Whatu Ora's new offer, a first-year specialist would receive a $17,700 (9.5 percent) increase on base salary and a 9.5 percent increase on other remuneration, including KiwiSaver, and another 6 percent the following year.
A second-year specialist would receive a $11,800 (6.2 percent) pay increase on base salary plus 6.2 percent for KiwiSaver, and another 6 percent increase in the following year.
All other specialists would have their salaries increased by 3 percent over two years, with a lump sum payment of $8000 to doctors with three or more years' experience.
"Additionally, we offered an incentive in 'hard to recruit' districts, which will assist in attracting and retaining senior doctors."
Latest offer 'worse' - union
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said however there was no point taking the offer to its members as for most of them it was "worse than what was originally on the table".
Most specialists were already near or at the top of the specialist scale, and for them the offer (a 33-month term with no backdating) worked out at "less than 0.77 percent on average", she said.
Dalton said the offer of less than 1 percent amounted to a pay cut in real terms, and would "drive existing doctors away rather than help retain them".
It would not attract any new senior doctors to fill vacancies, which run at 12 percent on average, and up to 44 percent in some districts.
"New Zealand will be short more than 3450 senior doctors by 2032 and we are already seeing the impact of doctor shortages across the country with longer wait times in emergency departments and for first specialists' appointments.
"At the same time, Health NZ continues to pay considerable amounts to locums [doctors covering specialist vacancies] some of whom are left in the posts for months rather than days or weeks, and who are paid significantly more than salaried staff.
"So we think their priorities are wrong, they're not taking a long-term investment approach. They still can't adequately account for where there are gaps and where there are not."
While Health NZ was claiming to have made "recruitment and retention offers" in hard to staff areas, that was only happening in four districts, she said.
"They have coincidentally limited those to the four that have been in the media the most. Some of them do have the greatest need, like Tairāwhiti, but there are regions that have demonstrably higher vacancy levels that have not been included in this list.
"So they continue to ignore their own data in terms of what they say they are doing."
Dalton acknowledged that Te Whatu Ora did move to address some problems in mediation, including offering to "restore relativities" with junior doctors.
That would benefit about 500 members.
However, some doctors were still waiting for aspects of the last collective settlement to be implemented. For instance, some districts were still not paying emergency department shift allowances.
"The strike will result in planned procedures being postponed, but the same number of procedures are lost every week due to ongoing staff shortages," Dalton said.
Health Minister blames union
In a post on X, Health Minister Simeon Brown blamed the union for rejecting what he called "a credible offer" by Health NZ.
"By choosing to strike, thousand of patients will have surgeries and specialist appointments cancelled, a further delay in care for patients who have already been waiting for too long."
Health NZ had estimated the strike would cause the cancellations or delays for 4300 planned treatments and specialist assessments, and up to the same number of radiology procedures, he said.
"Health NZ presented a credible offer in good faith as part of mediation last week. This would have made a significant difference to the remuneration of our senior doctors, and address key issues in order to attract and retain senior doctors to our workforce.
"ASMS have also decided not to put this offer back to its members, which would have given senior doctors the option to avoid union led strike action planned for the 1st of May."
That offer included a pay cost for newly qualified specialists to ensure they earned more than junior doctors and did not get a pay cut.
Health NZ had also offered a lump sum payment of $8000 over two years to specialists with three years' experience or more, and a two-year "recruitment and retention payment" of $25,000 for those who agreed to move to "hard to staff" regions like Nelson and Gisborne, Brown said.
"I call on the union to return to the negotiating table rather than undertaking strike action that will jeopardise the care of thousands of patients.
"It is also not too late for doctors to take control of this situation and direct their union to get back to the negotiating table - strike action which 52 percent of doctors did not vote for."
Hospitals and emergency departments will remain open, and the union is working with Health NZ to ensure life-preserving services continue during the strike.
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