NSW public hospitals to grind to a halt as doctors prepare to walk off the job
Thousands of burnt-out NSW doctors say they will strike for three days next week in a move that will significantly impact non-urgent care and defy a court order.
Public hospitals across NSW will be hit by industrial action as doctors walk off the job for three days next week in what is being described as a “crisis” in the state’s health system.
It’s the latest in a series of disputes between medical workers and the NSW state government over pay and conditions, as critically understaffed hospitals try to cope with overcrowded wards and emergency departments.
From Tuesday, elective surgeries will be postponed with only emergency procedures to be performed. Outpatient clinics and non-urgent consultations will also be cancelled and non-urgent medical procedures rescheduled.
The NSW government had asked the independent umpire, the Industrial Relations Commission, to intervene and the IRC ordered the union to abandon its plans to strike.
Next week’s strike action defies that order and follows what has been a year-long pay negotiation.
The Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation, the union representing salaried doctors, says it will take on any fines issued over the action but is standing by the dramatic escalation.
“We are working dangerously long hours, including 16-hour back-to-back shifts with barely any rest, and often covering multiple roles due to chronic staff shortages,” says Dr Nicholas Spooner, the president of the ASMOF.
“These conditions are unsafe for doctors and unsafe for patients. We’ve been negotiating in good faith for months, but the government is still refusing to fix this crisis.
“Striking is a last resort for us, and we are doing this so the Premier might finally listen and act.
“Right now some patients are waiting over 24 hours to see a doctor when they present to
an emergency department. We have over 100,000 public patients on the elective surgery waitlist. Why is our Premier Chris Minns okay with keeping our patients waiting while their health gets worse?”
The three-day strike means public hospitals in NSW will operate under public holiday or “skeleton” staffing. However, emergency departments and critical care units will remain staffed to safe levels with the union vowing that patient care would not be compromised.
Doctors say they have been pushed to “breaking point” and have described the widespread action as being unprecedented and a sign of how bad negotiations over pay and conditions have gotten and how dire their workplace situation has become.
The union is seeking a one-off 30 per cent jump in the base rate of doctors in the first year, and then the government’s standard pay increase after that. The ASMOF says the hike is needed to ensure pays remain competitive with other states.
“With the threat of industrial action looming, instead of making a genuine offer, we have received the same offer the government made in June last year – a 3 per cent pay raise,” Dr Spooner says.
“That will not assist in attracting and retaining the skilled staff specialists we need in NSW.
“NSW hospitals are dangerously understaffed, and doctors are being pushed to breaking point. Many are working 16-hour back-to-back shifts with little rest, leading to exhaustion, burnout and mistakes that put patients at risk.”
The union has urged the Premier to return to negotiations, saying the state’s health system depends on it.
Since the union announced the strike, the NSW government has offered the state’s doctors an interim backdated pay deal in an attempt to persuade them to call off the industrial action. However, it has not increased its underlying pay offer.
“We will offer and give you now 3 per cent, back paid to 1 July … money in your pockets whilst we enter these discussions and negotiations,” NSW health minister Ryan Park says.
He acknowledges this could be the first doctors strike in around 30 years, but says what doctors are asking for is unachievable. He has blamed the pay discrepancy, which means public doctors in NSW are paid far less than their interstate counterparts, on previous governments.
“For over a decade we’ve had a wages cap in place that has been enforced year on year here in NSW,” he says.
“What that has meant is that we have seen wage suppression over that time, leading to big gaps in wages that are paid in NSW for frontline healthcare workers to that of other states.”
Ryan Park says it is not possible to make up for “a decade of wage suppression” in a year and again appealed to doctors to call off the action and return to negotiations, vowing the government wants to continue talking.
“What we are asking the staff specialists to do is come back to the table. I will take the most senior health officials offline for a two-week period to try and see if we can get a better outcome that keeps patients safe, that keeps our doctors in place, and make sure that our health system can continue to function and operate.”
The government says it is still working to determine how much of the public workforce will walk off the job if the dispute cannot be resolved in time, but warns there will be real impacts on patients and hospitals. It is also developing Covid-era contingency plans to cope with the staff shortfall.
This is just the latest bitter pay dispute involving NSW Health following mass resignations of exhausted psychiatrists earlier this year. The resignations were a dramatic escalation of that pay dispute after the government ruled out a 25 per cent pay rise to address a critical recruitment and retention crisis of the state’s psychiatrists. Nurses are also seeking a pay rise.
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