Health Minister Lawrence Springborg to discuss contracts with doctors #qldpol #keepourdoctors #smoqld
A SECRET meeting of politicians and doctor representatives will be held tonight in a bid to break the impasse over public hospital contracts.
Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg and his assistant Chris Davis will hold talks with Australian Medical Association representatives Christian Rowan, Shaun Rudd and Steve Hambleton at an undisclosed location.
Respected intensive care specialist John Fraser will also attend but doctor unions – the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association and Together – have not been invited.
Dr Rowan will be at the table, despite being gagged by the AMAQ from speaking publicly about the contracts.
He triggered anger within the profession after publicly signing one of the contracts while the AMAQ was advising members not to sign.
Doctors claim the contracts are unfair, arguing they will lose money and work conditions.
The controversial individual contracts continued to create ructions yesterday with Premier Campbell Newman again called on to defend the changes during Question Time in State Parliament.
Mr Newman and Mr Springborg have been forced to maintain their staunch refusal to reopen negotiations under the added pressure of criticism from within their own party.
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The issue has divided the government, with Dr Davis penning a letter condemning the contracts which was leaked to the media this week.
Dr Davis, maintains he would not rule out resigning if the contract issues are not resolved.
“The auditor-general has essentially demanded that actually we go to proper, rigorous employee/employer arrangements for doctors in this state,” Mr Newman told the House yesterday.
Mr Springborg has publicly refused several times to reopen negotiations but Dr Davis’s letter has been the catalyst for new talks.
The meeting comes as doctor groups continue to condemn the proposed contracts.
Last night hundreds of doctors met in Brisbane demanding the Newman Government to restart negotiations over the contracts, passing a “no confidence” motion in Mr Springborg.
Doctors travelled from Cairns, Townsville, Mount Isa, Toowoomba and the Gold Coast to attend the meeting, which was told 1500 doctors had voted against the contracts at hospital meetings throughout the state.
Gold Coast paediatric geneticist Stephen Withers described the contracts as draconian and one-sided, with all benefits to the employers and a loss of basic employment rights for the employee.
“The net result of this … will be a failure to retain the great public doctors in Queensland and a complete inability to recruit any quality doctors in the future,” he said.
The Australian Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ Queensland branch also met this week and called on Mr Springborg to “listen to the reasonable concerns of the profession’’.
“There was a general consensus, the way the proposed contracts are worded is not compatible or conducive to achieving high standards of patient care,’’ said branch chairman Kelly Macgroarty.
Source: Courier Mail