QLD public hospitals will grind to a halt when specialists walk out #qldpol #keepourdoctors
Member for Gaven Dr Alex Douglas MP told Parliament today that critical hospital services would grind to a halt in Queensland with mass resignations of senior medical officers refusing to sign contracts with Queensland Health.
“Patients won’t be admitted and chaos will ensure when emergency departments overflow, patient deaths and major adverse outcomes are likely,” he said.
Dr Douglas said such is the crisis that if the Health Minister Lawrence Springborg does not consult with doctors immediately, his fellow LNP MPs should remove him and replace him with someone who will meet the doctors.
Earlier Dr Douglas asked the Premier if the government had any emergency contingencies in place if the senior medical officers walked out, but his question was ruled out of order as MPs shouted the question shouldn’t be allowed.
“Most medical officers will not sign the contracts because they are fundamentally wrong and they have every right to call these contracts unfair and walk out,” he said.
“The remuneration can’t be calculated, doctors can be arbitrarily dismissed and if dismissed, there is no course to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission, there will be no other dispute resolution process, shift work must be undertaken, rosters changed without notice, no overtime or on-call payments and further directives can be issued which cannot be challenged.
“Most senior medical officers are planning to leave the public system, with the situation deteriorating as one board has appointed bullies to engage in none-too subtle coercion tactics to get doctors to sign the contracts.
“Emergency, trauma, intensive care, advanced surgery and critical specialists including anaesthetists will all leave the system.
“Junior staff won’t be supervised, trainee surgeons and physicians will lose training as accreditation is withdrawn.
“Years of training gone, and if this escalates, the years of costly rebuilding of the human infrastructure will be painful and lengthy.
“Please don’t under-estimate the damage that has already been done and the speed at which medical professionals will pursue their own career options.
“If members think that having so many clinicians abandon the health system won’t collapse it, then you’re greater fools that I take you for.”
Source: Alex Dauglas MP for Gaven