Hospital doctors consider quitting over new #Queensland #Health #contracts
SENIOR doctors working at Nambour hospital are contemplating “quitting en masse” over Queensland Health’s new “draconian contracts”, which will slash doctors’ salaries and force them into “ridiculous” work situations.
A specialist doctor at Nambour General Hospital, who asked not to be named, said it would be an “unmitigated disaster” if as few as 10% of the doctors working on the Sunshine Coast followed through with the measures.
But he said many felt they had no choice with the State Government’s “ambush” before Christmas, introducing new contracts which take away the working conditions they have fought for “over the past 15 years”.
The new contracts will provide no protection from arbitrary dismissal, no dispute resolution process and doctors could be forced to move across the state without consultation.
Further, if the doctors do not sign by April 30, they say their salary packages could be cut “by up to 45%”, with doctors losing their extra pay for private patients and their reimbursement for shift work.
Doctors also could have to give six months’ notice before leaving and if they do not “they could be forced to pay in to make up for the six months”.
The doctor said there was a “unanimous’ sentiment in the “200-plus” doctors working in the Sunshine Coast public system that drastic measures had to be taken to address the situation.
“I have never been in a situation where so many hardworking placid doctors have been so outraged at how a government is trying to bully us into a contract that is totally unfair,” he said.
“A large number of people on the Sunshine Coast are thinking of leaving.”
He said if this happened “services will be stretched to the brink of collapse”.
“Every meeting I have been to (with Sunshine Coast doctors) there has been a unanimous feeling of outrage,” he said.
Adding to their frustration were comments by Health Minister Lawrence Springborg suggesting some doctors had rorted the system.
Mr Springborg has referred the practice of some doctors to the Crime and Misconduct Commission after a report by the Auditor-General found seven of 88 senior medical officers investigated out of total of 2500 statewide had taken advantage of the system.
The doctor said there were a “few cases where probably some doctors fraudulently billed Queensland Health”.
“The vast, vast majority of doctors are working hard and are giving their time and energy willingly to benefit the hospital and the health system.”
The AMA Queensland has backed doctors and called on the State Government to review the situation.