‘Shut up and pay us’: Doctor’s brutal message

A fed-up Aussie has unleashed on a state Premier after basically working 28.5 hours straight with only a couple of short breaks.

A specialist doctor has lifted the lid on her gruelling work day as she called out NSW Premier Chris Minns to “shut up and pay us” amid a three-day strike.

The state’s doctor’s union is calling for 20 to 30 per cent pay rises to bring salaries into line with other states. Hundreds of doctors walked off the job on Tuesday.

Emily Roman, a Newcastle-based staff specialist obstetrician, laid out the brutal schedule she had been subjected to.

Dr Emily Roman from Newcastle. Picture: Facebook

Chris Minns has said NSW can’t afford the union’s demands. Picture: Jason Edwards/NewsWire

“Yesterday I worked 8am to 10pm. Then I went home and slept a heavy 4 hours,” Dr Roman began in a Facebook post.

“I was called back in from 2am until 6:30am to help manage multiple life threatening emergencies of mothers and babies, make complex decisions, supervise more junior doctors and perform surgeries.

“I grabbed a coffee and arrived home as my alarm went off to wake up, got my kids ready for school and I’m due back at work at 8am.”

She said 80 to 100 women in the high-risk antenatal clinic would be expecting her “full attention, expertise and focus” having already worked most of the previous 24 hours.

Doctors and nurses demonstrate outside the NSW Ministry of Health, in St Leonards. Picture: Justin Lloyd

“Have you ever done anything this important for even a day in your life?” she rhetorically asked the NSW Premier.

“Have you done it while people lie to the media about how you’re overstaffed and well payed (sic)?

“Have you done it while being offered a 3% pay rise which is less than inflation?

“If not, shut up and pay us at least as much as our colleagues living in other (lower cost of living) states.”

Dr Roman encouraged her colleagues to enjoy their strike days, saying they were “overworked, underpaid, exhausted, burnt out, falling asleep at the wheel, leaving to work in the private sector or other states and not infrequently, killing themselves”.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park. Picture: Christian Gilles/NewsWire

About 3500 members of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (ASMOF) began their 72-hour strike on Tuesday.

Mr Minns released a statement on Monday night saying the industrial action would “disrupt our hospitals and health facilities” including emergency departments and planned surgeries.

“This strike did not need to happen,” he said.

“We want to pay doctors and all our healthcare workers more. We recognise that doctors had their ages capped for 12 years under the former government.

“But NSW taxpayers cannot afford to find a 30 per cent payrise in one year.”

The state government has offered a 10.5 per cent rise over three years.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the strike had led to hospitals cancelling about 370 elective surgeries, 3020 outpatient appointments and 486 chemotherapy sessions.

He has conceded the current wages of $76,000 a year or $38 an hour for junior doctors was “not commensurate” with their skills.

“I understand that doctors are frustrated at the difference in their wages compared to other jurisdictions. In particular for junior doctors,” Mr Park said on Tuesday.

“What I can’t do is resolve 12 years of wage suppression in a single year.

“We know a gap exists and what we are asking ASMOF … to do is stop this industrial action, let’s go back to the negotiation table and see if we can work this through.”

Originally published as ‘Shut up and pay us’: Doctor’s brutal message