Whakatane Senior Doctors To Hold Stopwork Meeting

ATTENTION: HEALTH REPORTER NO. OF PAGES:1

MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,
TUESDAY 29 JANUARY 2002

“Whakatane Senior Doctors To Hold Stopwork Meeting Over Onerous Working Conditions”

“Whakatane senior doctors employed by the Bay of Plenty District Health Board are to hold a 2-hour stopwork meeting on Monday 4 February in protest over their onerous working conditions,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today. The meeting will commence at 10.30am. It is not strike action.

“This has been a long festering sore still unresolved with management. Senior doctors want to give a strong message to management to encourage them to face up to their responsibilities as a ‘good employer’ while at the same time minimising inconvenience to patients.”

“Senior doctors work on high frequency emergency rosters with limited staff support. This regularly and frequently restricts to being available to the hospital after normal working hours. The sheer extensiveness of these rosters makes them especially onerous. Low and inadequate staffing levels also impose severe work pressures during the normal working day in a busy hospital with high occupancy rates and high patient turnover. There are often vacancies and shortages compounded by Whakatane’s serious recruitment and retention problems.”

“The dispute focuses on both better compensation for those that are forced into this untenable situation and better protection against having to work unsafe hours,” concluded Mr Powell.

Ian Powell

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

For further information please contact: 04 499.1271

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