What can teachers learn from the current issue of contracts for doctors in Queensland Health? #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
For the past few months, there has been a great deal of media coverage of Queensland Health’s imposition of individual contracts for Salaried Medical Officers (SMOs). In light of the Queensland Government’s move to push school leaders onto fixed-term individual contracts, there are a number of lessons to be learned from the doctors’ experience.
1. The contracts are heavily weighted toward removing protections for the doctors’ working conditions and remuneration, while obliging the doctors to offer maximum “flexibilities”….
This is not a case of fair give and take on the part of the employer and employee.
From the Australian Medical Association:
“The contracts, first unveiled last October, strip away key employment rights and protections for Senior Medical Officers employed by Queensland public hospitals.
“The contracts remove provisions aimed at managing doctor fatigue, such as mandated rest breaks and limits on hours, as well as robbing doctors of important workplace rights such as access to dispute resolution and unfair dismissal procedures.”
From Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation President Tony Sara:
“The Queensland Government wishes to put all salaried hospital specialists onto individual contracts. The individual contracts are worse than WorkChoices contracts,” he said.
“There is no protection from arbitrary dismissal, there is no dispute resolution processes, the employer does what they want and they don’t have to discuss or negotiate with their staff whatsoever.”
In the words of Dr Steve Vincent, a Cairns-based doctor facing contractual employment:
“As it stands, they won’t let us see the contracts until we sign them, they can move us around the state to work without notice, and we can be sacked on the spot with no reason. It is an insult that is beyond draconian.”
2. The Queensland Government is putting all its rhetoric of productivity and performance behind its push for contracts, under the guise of improved patient service – but doesn’t give any meaningful evidence of links….
On Queensland Health’s website, the reason given for the contracts is:
‘“We need a simple, performance-driven health network that provides excellent patient care for all Queenslanders. We need to empower our people, encourage innovation, streamline processes, create productive partnerships and revitalise our healthcare system to truly deliver local decision-making and value for taxpayers. And we need to deliver on the government’s promise to provide a simplified industrial system that will make that happen.”
The real reason is in the last sentence – “simplified” industrial systems are generally those that are stripped of protections for workers’ conditions.
Queensland Health and the Minister refuse to heed the warnings of the doctors themselves, and the associations which represent them, about the real impact on public health provision.
From the AMA:
“In addition to the distress caused to doctors and their families, the AMA has warned the dispute could undermine the ability of Queensland public hospitals to recruit and retain highly trained and experienced medical staff, potentially making it harder for patients to access care at their local hospital and increasing waiting times.”
From the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland (RDAQ) president, Dr Sue Masel:
“One concern is that the anxiety being created by medical officer contracts puts rural services at risk due to attrition.”
From the doctors:
“A Prince Charles Hospital memorandum obtained by The Courier-Mail says 80 per cent of the facility’s senior emergency department specialists have indicated they will resign or reduce working hours in the public sector if the contracts go ahead.”
3. The Queensland Government is prepared to play very dirty indeed….
In the early stages of “negotiating” (though imposing is more accurate) the contracts, the government was releasing information about an investigation by Auditor-General Andrew Greaves into Queensland Health SMOs “rorting” the system and earning hundreds of thousands of dollars above their base wages. The story ran on front pages and lead news bulletins for days, creating an image of fact cat doctors ripping off the public system for their own benefit.
Health Minister Lawrence Springborg made explicit links between contracts and the alleged rorting:
“Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said the contracts were about increasing transparency and accountability under a system which had been ‘letting patients down’.
“He said Auditor-General Andrew Greaves had exposed the way Queensland public hospital doctors were paid as being heavily flawed and a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
In fact: “Of the state’s 2000 plus senior medical officers,Mr Greaves investigated 88 and found just eight were treating private patients in public facilities and retaining all the income, instead of reimbursing the state system, as set down in their contracts.”
4. The Queensland Government is using the divide and conquer strategy….
The contracts affect members of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation, Together Union and AMA – both in the Queensland AMA and as part of the federal body.
The Health Minister persistently sets up one group against another. He also continues to try and divide doctors by saying his anecdotal evidence is that doctors are happy to sign, despite mass meetings in public hospitals around the state rejecting the contracts. The extract below illustrates both points.
“Health Minister Lawrence Springborg says the government is happy to meet with Dr Hambleton.
“‘But we’re not going to plough over old ground, particularly in this case when the AMA federal president has not been involved in the negotiations,’ he said.
“‘[Dr Hambleton] has only come in on this issue in the last week or so and the state branch of the AMA has done the negotiations and has done so for the previous few months.'”
Mr Springborg has accused unions of “going overboard” in the row about new individual workplace contracts for doctors.
He says other doctors have told him they are happy to sign.
“‘I just ask clinicians out there, doctors, to actually have a look at what’s on offer, not all the hysteria,’ he said.”
Source and more information: Queensland Teachers’ Union