Public hospital doctors in the Australian state of Victoria voted to begin industrial action after the government failed to meet their demands on issues that included long shifts, unpaid overtime, and shorter parental leave allowances than those of other public employees, reports Medscape.
In a recent vote by members of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation Victoria, 97% supported escalating their protests, claiming that the public hospital system is at a breaking point.
“Clearly we don’t want to do things that are going to impact patient safety,” said Simon Judkins, MD, emergency physician and president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) Victoria. “But we will be looking at doing things like billing services and stopping doing billing … but also not attending admin-type meetings that the hospitals need us to attend and expect us to attend after hours.”
The vote is the first time in 20 years that Victorian public hospital doctors have decided to take industrial action, and comes on the heels of a year of negotiations over pay and working conditions.
Long shifts are a key issue, said Stephanie Davies, MD, pain management specialist and chair of AMA Victoria’s Doctor in Training subdivision. “Under the current terms, we can be working up to 12-14 hours per shift, not including overtime.”
She added that fatigue was taking a toll, and many doctors were cutting back to part-time or leaving the healthcare system entirely. “We’re seeing shifts across the state unfilled every day … because everyone’s already working to their max capacity.”
Doctors have been pushing for the maximum shift length to be reduced to 12.5 hours and for two weekends off per fortnight instead of the current 3.5 days, Davies said.
Overtime is also a sticking point. Everyone from doctors in training to senior consultants is being short-changed on overtime for on-call work, according to Judkins. “They get called but they’re not getting remunerated for that,” he said.
Public hospital doctors also say that they receive less paid parental leave than other public servants do.
Dispute over funding
Negotiations have lasted for a year, and the existing agreement expired at the end of February. While the state government had agreed to continue working toward a solution, “we haven't seen any improvement or any kind of significant move to reach an agreement”, said Davies.
The state government has cited a lack of funding as a reason for denying the demands, but “there is this frustration that they can find money for other workforces, but for some reason they can’t seem to find the money for public hospital doctors”, said Judkins.
The industrial action, which is protected under the state’s industrial relations laws, could initially see doctors participating in protests and refusing administrative tasks, including after-hours meetings. As a last resort, it could escalate to work stoppages.
The AMA has stressed that patient care will not be disrupted and patient safety remains an over-riding priority.
Medscape Medical News article – Australian Hospital Doctors Threaten Strike Action (Open access)
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