Doctor contracts to be altered: Lawrence Springborg #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
The government has seemingly blinked in its stand-off with the state’s senior doctors.
After just over a week of intense negotiation between Queensland Health and doctors’ representatives, Health Minister Lawrence Springborg told parliament an addendum to the contracts will be issued, to address key concerns.
But the final word still goes to the state’s doctors, who will consider the changes at a meeting on Wednesday night.
Included in the addendum is a ministerial directive to limit the powers of the Health Director-General, meaning changes which would have disadvantaged a senior medical officer cannot be made to their contract without prior agreement.
Unfair dismissal has also been addressed, with the minister conceding an SMO can still access the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission if they believe they have been terminated for an “invalid reason” as defined by the act.
Dismissals considered to be “harsh, unjust or unreasonable” by the SMO can be referred to a review process the Health and Hospital Service will be bound by.
Rostering changes will need to be privy to an expression of interest process first; if that fails, consultation will take place. The same applies for a transfer. However an SMO cannot “unreasonably” decline to work a changed roster or be transferred. If an agreement can’t be reached, the Director-General will step in.
The government has set an April 30 deadline for doctors to sign the contracts, which will come into effect on July 7.
Mr Springborg said he would not speculate on how doctors would respond to the changes at their next Pineapple Hotel meeting, but added all of the outstanding issues had been addressed.
“Now it is a case of reasonableness,” he said.
“Based on evidence do these solutions address the issues? Yes they do and also the other thing which can be a positive out of this is because these are lifetime contracts … they need to be able to be modernised from time to time and that is only fair that if you are going to be on contract for 30 to 40 years.”
President of the Australian Medical Association Steve Hambleton said the addendum would need to be considered before any decision regarding a recommendation was made.