Doctors unanimous in opposing new contracts #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
More than 1000 hands went up – and the Government’s hopes for a quick solution to the doctors contracts dispute went down just as fast.
But if there was any good news for Health minister Lawrence Springborg from a meeting at the Brisbane Convention Centre in Brisbane on Wednesday, it was that hospital doctors weren’t voting to down stethescopes. At least not yet.
Health department director-general Ian Maynard was given five minutes to put the Government’s case to the salaried medical officers meeting, but any hopes he may have had of getting their support were quickly dashed.
Hand after hand went up, after his presentation – every one of them rejecting the revised offer from the State Government in a unanimous vote of defiance.
Assistant health minister Chris Davis had reiterated his support for the doctors, in an emotional speech dedicated to the memory of his stepdaughter who died just days ago in a car accident.
A number of doctors at the meeting said they had already resigned, rather than sign the contracts which they see as patently unfair, and which they argue compromises the treatment of patients by placing bureaucrats decisions above clinical considerations.
Their union had threatened to invoke ‘the nuclear option’ of resigning on masse if the contracts were rejected, but as observers at the meeting pointed out, while the doctors had voted to reject the revised contracts, they also voted to continue negotiations.