Qld doctors protest against new contracts #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
Queensland’s health minister says the government won’t be renegotiating new doctor contracts, despite senior practitioners again protesting against them.
Lawrence Springborg says senior doctors threatening to quit over new individual contracts have been misled about what’s in them.
“When people finally receive their contracts they will find that what they have been told is so far from the truth it’s not funny,” he told ABC Radio.
But doctors remain sceptical about the contracts, with more than 900 packing a Brisbane hotel on Wednesday night in protest.
The Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation’s Dr Nick Buckmaster says doctors are still willing to walk out of public hospitals over the contracts.
“As to how many people would be prepared to resign, the overwhelming number of doctors in the room raised their hand,” he said.
Under the new deals, severance pay would increase from three to six months, doctors could no longer be transferred to anywhere in the state, and they would have recourse to common law.
The government is at loggerheads over the contracts, which are to be offered to the state’s 3500 senior medical doctors.
Queensland’s assistant health minister Chris Davis has threatened to quit if the contracts cause patient harm.
Their lobby group warns that an unknown number will move interstate or to the private system as early as the end of March.
Source: Nine News