Blacktown Hospital’s emergency department was operating under a “modified format” during the doctors’ strike.
The beds were there a week ago, but when one patient returned to Blacktown Hospital emergency department on Thursday, they had been replaced with chairs.
Thousands of the state’s doctors were on strike, which meant the hospital’s emergency department was operating under a “modified format”, a spokesperson for Western Sydney Local Health District said.
Emergency staff working at the hospital during the strikes confirmed the department was fully staffed over the three days, and the total number of beds remained unchanged.
While doctors went to every effort to ensure their patients were safe, they also went to every effort to ensure patients knew where to direct their anger.
“Waiting in emergency?” Read one poster outside Blacktown Hospital. “Blame Chris Minns.”
They have returned to work, but the anger of more than 5000 doctors has not gone away.
Doctors strike for more pay and better conditions at Westmead Hospital on Tuesday.Credit: Janie Barrett
The news
In a hearing before the Industrial Relations Commission on Friday morning, the doctors’ union confirmed it would obey the court’s orders to refrain from industrial action for the next three months.
But if you think it spells the end of the government’s row with health workers, it is really just the start.
The truce allows the union to return to the court to strike deals for psychiatrists and the broader medical cohort. The commission will also be busy arbitrating a fair pay rise for nurses and midwives.
The government has said it will accept whatever raise the commission recommends – potentially putting taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional government spending.
How we got here
The union and the government had been negotiating a new agreement for doctors for more than a year before this week’s strike. That involved 15 meetings, during which neither party could agree on a way forward.
Doctors voted earlier this year in favour of a three-day strike, which the government tried to block in the industrial court. It won, but the doctors walked out anyway – defying the court’s orders.
That defiance led Honourable Justice David Chin to postpone a decision on whether to give psychiatrists a pay rise, after more than 200 resigned in response to mass vacancies and deteriorating patient care.
The delay left dozens of psychiatrists who had postponed their resignations in limbo, and cast a cloud of uncertainty over the state’s troubled mental health system.
Why it matters
The dispute is about more than pay. The job expected of doctors has changed dramatically over the years, and the union argues its award (the agreement dictating pay and conditions) hasn’t kept pace.
In most states and territories, staff specialists are paid an on-call allowance and overtime for the hours they work if called into hospital to treat a patient.
In NSW, these allowances are baked in to staff specialist salaries, meaning they don’t get paid any more if they come in on a Saturday night to perform emergency surgery, for example.
Dr Mark Priestley, an ASMOF councillor who has worked in NSW hospitals for more than four decades, said this was the main reason many of his colleagues were taking up more lucrative roles interstate.
Dr Mark Priestley addresses the crowds at the doctors’ strike at Westmead Hospital on Tuesday.Credit: Janie Barrett
“They’re leaving. And that is like watching the logging of old-growth forest,” Priestley said. “It’ll take a generation to replace them.”
ASMOF said more than 3000 new members have joined this month.
By the numbers
In three days:
- More than 3000 doctors did not turn up to work on each day of the strike
- 663 patients had their planned elective surgeries cancelled
- 5355 outpatient appointments were rescheduled
- 33 beds were closed over the duration of the strike – mostly in emergency department short-stay units
What’s next
The union and NSW Health will next meet in court on May 7 to hear expert evidence in the psychiatry dispute. Closing submissions won’t be heard until June 19, a full three months later than scheduled.
Then it is the nurses’ and midwives’ turn, with the state government and the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association set for six weeks of arbitration beginning in September.
As for the doctors, their claim for a 30 per cent pay rise “in a reasonable timeframe” is a long way from the government’s current offer of 10.5 per cent in three years.
Lawyers for NSW Health told the IRC on Wednesday it was clear the dispute would need to be resolved in court, but that would be unlikely to happen before October.
That means another six months of frustration and anger for doctors, and more uncertainty and tension hanging over the state’s hospitals – which are already dealing with record demand and long surgical waitlists.
More reading
- Doctors like me pay a heavy price to do our jobs. Pay us what we’re worth
- ‘It was never about the money’: NSW’s junior doctors win $230m payout
- Ninety hours in emergency: Leaked patient list reveals dire effects of psychiatrist crisis
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