Cairns Doctors vow to walk over controversial work contracts #qldpol #Cairns #smoqld #keepourdoctors
DOCTORS who stormed a conference of Queensland Health executives yesterday say they will not back down and sign controversial work contracts.
Queensland Health director-general Ian Maynard flew to Cairns to speak with hospital executives and senior medical staff following a public berating over the individual work agreements.
A group of anaesthetists, who have threatened mass resignation before the April 30 signing deadline, ambushed the conference, accusing hospital executives of “gagging” staff.
Senior Medical Staff Association executive doctor Sean McManus was part of the tense confrontation yesterday and said there was a sense of injustice within hospital wards.
“(The government) have created a crisis,” he said.
“They keep saying to people ‘doctors aren’t serious and it’s just a bluff and a game’ and they are not listening.
“These guys aren’t joking, we’re not saying this for some sort of demonstration.”
Mr Maynard said key issues including termination provisions within the contracts, the director-general’s industrial relations powers, arbitration process, key performance indicators and rights of transfer would be discussed when Queensland Health met with unions and medical associations on Monday.
The meeting would not be a re-negotiation of the contract, he said.
“It’s not uncommon with any award or agreement negotiation that there are threats of walk-outs and industrial action,” he said.
Amid the deadlock, Mr Maynard admitted communication about the contracts could have been better managed.
“There is certainly some lessons I take away from this personally in terms of how communication could have been improved,” he said.
“I’m starting to now understand the challenges from the past which is having an impact on the way doctors are reviewing these contracts.”
The first individual work agreements were sent to 50 Cairns senior medical officers yesterday afternoon and Mr Maynard said he was “very confident” doctors would sign the paperwork.
“I’m very optimistic that opening up discussions next week with all of the interested parties will get a lot of the emotion out of this space as doctors progressively get their contracts in their hands.”
But anaesthetist Paul Talbutt warned health officials threats were not empty and “100 per cent” of anaesthetists within the Cairns service were prepared to resign.
“They can come here and shake our hands but it’s not changing our resolve that we won’t sign the contract,” Dr Talbutt said.
“They need to change the legislation, reverse their behaviours of trying to get us to sign individual contracts and go back to the negotiation table.”
He said State Government actions were “malicious” towards people who had given a professional lifetime to the public health service.
Hospital chair Bob Norman said staff were not obliged to sign the contracts and clinicians would be invited to discuss their agreements over a one-week period.
“Nobody is going to get sacked if they don’t sign,” he said.
But doctors staying on current work arrangements would miss out on private practice work leading to a hefty cut to their salaries.
Mr Norman said there were contingencies if senior members resigned next month but wouldn’t say how he would manage a mass walk-out.
There are 241 senior and visiting medical officers with the Cairns health service.
Source: Cairns Post