Meeting of doctors over public specialist contracts votes no confidence in Health Minister Lawrence Springborg #qldpol #keepourdoctors #smoqld
HUNDREDS of doctors meeting in Brisbane have unanimously supported a “no confidence” motion in Health Minister Lawrence Springborg over his proposed public hospital contracts.
The doctors are meeting at Brisbane’s Pineapple Hotel to discuss the contracts. About 750 people crammed inside while an unknown number were left queuing outside.
Mr Springborg was invited to attend the meeting but has failed to appear.
The meeting has called for the Newman Government to restart negotiations over the contracts with doctor unions and the Australian Medical Association.
Doctors travelled from Cairns, Townsville, Mount Isa, Toowoomba and the Gold Coast to attend the meeting.
The meeting has been 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.
“This is about Queensland and Queenslanders. Their rights to access the best healthcare today, tomorrow and the years to come.
“Their right to have well staffed public hospitals with world class specialists. We are fighting for Queenslanders and we will fight with every breath to ensure we have a sustainable well staffed health system whose foundation is based on patient care. This is what we are fighting for.”
Source: Courier Mail