More than 5,000 public sector doctors in New South Wales, across different specialties and levels of seniority, are taking industrial action between Tuesday and Thursday.
The strike called by the doctors’ union, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (Asmof), comes as bargaining with NSW Health over a new pay deal and better working conditions has broken down.
The Minns government has offered a pay rise of 10.5% over three years, while Asmof has sought a 30% rise over a “reasonable period of time” to bring doctors in the state up to parity with other states.
Andrew Holland, the executive director of the NSW branch of Asmof, said the action was being taken as members had been pushed to “breaking point”. He said the government had continually failed to address concerns around workload, which was leaving members working “excessively unsafe hours – often 16-hour shifts with limited breaks and backing it up with another 16-hour shift”.
While the NSW government said the industrial action would put patient safety at risk, Holland said “what will hurt patient safety is the status quo”.
What action is being taken?
Ian Lisser, Asmof NSW’s manager of industrial services, said there are 5,000 members taking industrial action which includes junior and senior medical officers across the range of specialties. With around 12,000 public sector doctors in the state, Lisser said it is safe to say at least a third will be participating.
What form the action takes is up to the members within each individual department at each hospital. Asmof organisers have held meetings “department by department, hospital by hospital” and gained support from the senior doctors within each department on what action is feasible without compromising patient safety, Lisser said.
Not all members taking action may be walking off the job – for example, a department might say half of the doctors can strike, and the rest that don’t walk off the job have bans on administrative duties, he said. The greatest number of staff who will be walking off the job will be in Sydney metropolitan hospitals – Royal Prince Alfred, St George, Westmead, Prince of Wales, Liverpool and Nepean, Lisser said.
The only directive the union has given its members is that if they undertake action it has to occur on those three days, and then the members have let the union know what they will be doing – when, where and whom, Lisser said.
What hospital services will be affected?
Some elective surgeries as well as some clinic appointments with a specialist at public hospitals will be cancelled.
The NSW health minister, Ryan Park, said the number of elective surgeries affected are still being compiled and patients contacted but they expect similar disruptions as the nurses strike last year which saw 700 surgeries cancelled in a single day.
Emergency services, critical care units, emergency surgery, and trauma services will continue as normal, according to Asmof. However, Park said he is concerned patient care in emergency departments will be affected as “we are going to run emergency departments with lower staff than what should be there”.
Which hospital emergency departments will be affected?
Lisser said all emergency departments are going to be impacted “one way or another” but the union has given an “iron clad commitment” there will be safe staffing at a minimum to the same level as during public holidays and weekends.
Park said he is not assured those staffing levels can maintain patient safety due to the higher demand for services during the daytime on weekdays.
Park said Tuesday was “arguably the busiest and most significant day of the week in terms of our emergency department presentations”.
Park said he was “particularly” worried about the larger metropolitan hospitals, “places like Westmead, St George Prince of Wales, RPA [Royal Prince Alfred], those type of very large tertiary hospitals that have significant medical workforce.
Regional hospitals will not be affected as much because they are mostly staffed by visiting medical officers, who provide medical services a contractual basis, and are therefore not members of Asmof, which is a union for doctors employed in a permanent capacity by the hospital.
Should I go to an emergency department?
Park said if people in NSW are experiencing an emergency, they should not delay seeking help at a hospital. Emergency departments and triple zero will remain open and continue to operate.
However, if they were not experiencing an emergency, Park advised people to call Healthcare Direct on 1800 022 222, go to an urgent care clinic or see your GP.
Why is the government saying the strike is unsafe?
The NSW health deputy secretary, Matthew Daly, said: “We’ve been pleading with the union to provide us with precise details of the staffing that will be provided so that we can actually make a judgment call as to the level of risk, that we will do our best to mitigate.”
“The advice we’ve received has been haphazard, to be kind, particularly for metropolitan hospitals,” Daly said.
“At least in [the Nurses Association’s industrial action] they were they were forthright, they were very clear, they were transparent, and we could work with them to facilitate their industrial rights, but also to facilitate safe access and care for patients in New South Wales,” Daly said.
Andrew Holland, the executive director of the NSW branch of Asmof said based on information they have, the assertions of emergency departments being unsafe were not founded.
The union gave members a deadline of 2 April to confirm their plans for the strike, but some had only gotten their plans in over the weekend, Lisser said. He said the union would direct doctors to work if the plans appeared to leave departments with unsafe staffing levels, and added that much of the messaging from NSW Health is designed to undermine the industrial action.
Why are they saying it’s illegal?
The state’s Industrial Relations Commission ordered Asmof to refrain from taking industrial action for the next three months, but the union decided to proceed with its first strike since 1998.
Park said, “I say to the doctors union very, very clearly, this action should not be taking place. You wanted the independent umpire in place. The government has put the independent umpire in place, and … the decision of that independent umpire is that Asmof and the doctors union should go back to the negotiation table, and should be abiding by that direction, and should not be having this action.”