Senior doctors’ reject Qld Health Minister Lawrence Springborg’s latest offer in contracts dispute #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
Around 2,000 senior doctors have unanimously rejected the Queensland Government’s latest offer on individual contracts at a meeting in Brisbane.
Medical Professor Dr John Fraser says the doctors packed a room with seating for just over 1,000 at the Brisbane Convention Centre last night.
Dr Fraser says the senior doctors’ unanimously rejected the State Government’s latest offer.
“The silliest move the Government could have done was dismiss us as hysterical people that just couldn’t understand a contract,” he said.
“I think that was an incredibly stupid move.”
Queensland Health’s director-general fronted the meeting to offer more concessions, but they were not enough to end the long-running stand-off.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says it will resume talks with the government to find a solution.
AMA federal president Dr Steve Hambleton says the State Government has caused deep upset.
Dr Hambleton says the senior medical officers want to put the dispute behind them but they will not sign contracts that are unfair.
However, Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg says it seems the last 10 days of negotiations with doctors over the individual contracts has been a waste of time and energy.
Mr Springborg says he has been trying to find a compromise but doctors keep changing the goal posts.
“Those sorts of meetings are never designed to actually resolve issues – they are only ever designed to keep people emotional and concerned about issues,” Mr Springborg said.
“I don’t think there was any fair representation of what has been achieved over the last week to 10 days.
“I have entered the discussion with doctors in an honourable and forthright way and have answered all of those particular problems with real solutions.”
Mr Springborg says he is disappointed by the swift rejection of his amended contracts for senior doctors.
“We have really now boiled it down to tin tacks and we have addressed all of those issues,” he said.
“It really comes back to the fact that they have a problem with the contracts and they have had a problem all the way along despite the fact that they said they didn’t.”
Meanwhile, scores of doctors in state’s far north joined their Brisbane colleagues to reject the State Government’s latest contract offer.
Around 150 doctors packed into a Cairns pub to watch the meeting in Brisbane via video link.
Dr Sean McManus from the Senior Medical Staff Association says around 100 Cairns doctors have so far indicated they are prepared to tender their resignations, but are waiting till a decision is made about mass resignations.
He says regardless of whether the campaign hits its target, he will probably still quit.
“It’ll be very sad but I guess I’ll leave with my head held high because I’ve fought tooth and nail to overturn this,” he said.
Watch the broadcast of doctors’ meeting.
Source: ABC News