Doctors’ contract dispute: unanimous no confidence vote in Health Minister Lawrence Springborg #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
There has been an unanimous vote of no confidence in Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg over the Government’s individual contracts for senior medical officers (SMOs).
More than 900 doctors crammed into a Brisbane hotel last night to protest against the new workplace deals.
Hundreds of doctors have vowed to quit rather than sign the Government’s contracts.
Dr Nick Buckmaster, from the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation, said it was the biggest gathering of doctors since the dispute started.
“To get 900 of our specialists in one place – that’s extraordinary,” he said.
Dr Buckmaster says Mr Springborg should end the standoff before everyone quits.
“As to how many people would be prepared to resign – the overwhelming majority of the doctors in the room raised their hand – that would leave our health system crippled,” he said.
However, Mr Springborg says he doubts that will happen.
“When people finally receive their contracts they will find that what they were told is so far from the truth it is not funny,” he said.
“I think at the moment there has been a lot of emotion, a lot of misleading information, and a misunderstanding about this as well, but that’s not to say there are genuine concerns among doctors.
“We are going to a new system in Queensland of contracts.”
The Australian Medical Association and unions have been urging medical staff to refuse to sign the new contracts.
Salaried Medical Officer spokesman Dr John Fraser says doctors’ threats to resign over the contracts are serious.
He says there is also speculation the Government might be happy for to some to leave, so it can contract work to the private sector, or bring in new staff.
“I don’t know that there’s a cupboard out there with fully qualified specialists just waiting to be taken off the shelf,” he said.
“Maybe you could get them from places, but I suggest would be dragged in from different countries who can’t get a job in their own country.”
The doctors want the Queensland Government to return to the negotiating table to rewrite the contracts.
But Mr Springborg says he is not backing down.
“I just say to people de-escalate the heat – look at the facts,” he said.
“You’ll see when you get your contract what is being said is not true at all.
“This new system of contracts follows on from a report from the auditor-general that says we need to make our system have more accountability – this is about accountability productivity and greater patient care.”
Mr Springborg says doctors will be as good or better off under the new deal.
“I’ve always said if there are genuine issues which are unresolved then of course the Government’s happy to sit down and actually speak with doctors about that,” he said.
“There has been 33 formal meetings over a six-month period and I have indicated to the Australian Medical Association – both their national and also their state body – over the last few weeks and also representatives from the Medical Staff Association – that there will not be a reopening of formal negotiations.
“It’s wrong to say that all doctors oppose these contracts, because we’ve had doctors that have come forward and signed up already, and others that are approaching us and wanting to sign up before their contracts go out.
“Others will continue to be concerned until they can work through individual issues and I understand that.”
However, he says some doctors should have been given earlier access to their draft contracts to get more time to consider them.
“In some cases that is probably right, but of course our hospital and health boards and services have been taking time to make sure that they get the information right before they send the draft contracts out to the doctors so they can see them,” he said.
“We’re talking here about what has been a highly complex system.
“It’s now going towards a simpler prospect of local area management and the really good thing about this is I have enormous confidence in hospital boards to be able to do a far better job than the central Department of Health.”
Doctors’ rally outside hospitals
Yesterday, about 100 doctors rallied at Ipswich, west of Brisbane before last night’s meeting.
The Ipswich rally heard the proposed contracts for specialists working in public hospitals are unfair and could result in facilities such as Ipswich Hospital losing entire specialty units.
Meanwhile, about 80 doctors rallied outside the Nambour Hospital yesterday to also voice their concerns.
Dr Alan Millard likened Mr Springborg to a car salesman over his handling of the issue.
“He won’t tell me if it’s new or old or how many kilometres it’s done,” he said.
“He won’t tell me if it’s been crashed before, what colour it is, or even how much it will cost, and I can’t even see it.
“If I don’t want to buy it, he’ll take my money anyway and the reason why I need a new car is because people in his office drove my old car around and crashed it – it’s crazy.
“Who would sign up to this? Nobody would.
“You’d go to another car yard and that’s what we’re seeing.”
Dr Millard says the contracts mean doctors can be dismissed for no reason and include unreasonable key performance indicators.
“We all perform at a high level everyday for the benefit of our patients and this community,” he said.
“I don’t think any of us would have any trouble whatsoever signing up to reasonable indicators of any sort.
“The difficulty is that there’s no cap on these – anyone who does sign this contract it doesn’t matter anyway because it can be unilaterally altered – that’s dodgy.”