Doctor say ‘sense of grieving’ over new contracts #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors #cairns
Far north Queensland doctors are appealing for transparency and compassion from the State Government as talks restart on controversial new contracts.
The first 50 of the 241 staff affected received their contracts from the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service on Friday.
Health Minister Lawrence Springborg is due to resume talks with doctors, unions and professional associations today on six areas of dispute.
Anaesthetist Sean McManus from the Senior Medical Staff Association at the Cairns Hospital says he and most of his colleagues are still intending to resign rather than sign the existing contracts.
“There’s a real sense of grieving among the senior staff here. There’s a real sense of loss because we’re all members of this community and as I pointed out to the director-general, our health service was not broken, was not in a crisis,” he said.
“We accept that there might have been some issues that needed to be addressed but they have created a crisis of their own making and we see an impending train wreck heading towards us.”
The chairman of the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, Bob Norman, says it has contingency plans in place in the event of a mass resignation but would not provide details.
“I’m not going to come into a running commentary on who is or isn’t going to sign the contracts,” he said.
“People have up until the end of April to sign up.
“We’ll know when that date comes but ultimately nobody is being forced to sign a contract. They can stay on the arrangement they have right now, nobody is going to be pushed out the door.”
Doctors who do not sign the contracts will lose their right to private practice income.
Source: ABC News