The state’s senior doctors have found a champion. #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
Assistant health minister Chris Davis, who lost his teenage stepdaughter in a car crash on Sunday night, addressed more than 1300 of his former medical colleagues on Wednesday night and lent them his support as they opted against signing amended contracts put forward by the government.
Earlier this month, Dr Davis had expressed concern over conditions within the employment contracts the government was offering the state’s senior and visiting medical officers.
He and senior doctors believe the contracts, with a signing deadline of April 30, will result in a loss of protections for doctors and compromised healthcare for the public.
Dr Davis had been asked before the weekend to speak at Wednesday’s meeting at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, where doctors would discuss the changes the government was prepared to make to address their concerns.
He kept his promise, despite his family’s tragedy, and spoke in his stepdaughter Jessica’s honour, saying he knew that she would want him to share the conversation he was now unable to have with her.
“Just as one needs to document the basis for a patient’s clinical diagnosis and treatment, so too, one should take extraordinary care when introducing organisational change that can affect thousands of employees and the untold numbers of patients who rely on them,” he said.
“Due diligence is essential prior to change and of little use after the experiment has failed.
“I would tell Jess that I am still waiting to see the report on the background to the doctor contracts; the consultation process, the perceived benefits and identified risks and the risk management strategies.
“I would tell her that in my opinion, contracts should not precede without transparent evidence of proposed efficacy and the due diligence.”
Earning the room’s applause, Dr Davis said any background report would need to address the AMA’s code of ethics, particularly the requirement urging doctors to “refrain from entering into any contract or organisation which may conflict with professional integrity, clinical independence or your primary obligation to the patient”.
He said he and Jessica had often discussed “great leaders”, particularly former US President Franklin Roosevelt, who like he, had also overcame the ravages of polio.
He admired Roosevelt’s conviction that “human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fibre of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough”.
“So we would question the need for seemingly unfair and unreasonable contracts that reduced dedicated senior public hospital doctors to tears during negotiations,” Dr Davis said.
“Jess and I would also discuss why we both thought politics was important and look back on the policy statements which inspired us prior and during the election – indeed the one on the public service guaranteed job security for hard working public servants and welcomed a culture of frank and fearless advice from a professional and permanent public service.
“And Jess would remind me that one should always endeavour to keep one’s word. Thank you Jess, may you rest in peace.”
Dr Davis was given two standing ovations. A minute’s silence was held in Jessica’s honour.
Health Director-General Ian Maynard, who has spent the past two weeks in intensive discussions with doctors’ representatives also addressed the meeting.
He said he had spoken to hundreds of doctors across the state and had worked to create an addendum to the contracts aimed at allaying the key concerns they had raised, within the parameters of the contract framework.
“I encourage you, I implore you to read the addendum, the variation to the contract, read that side by side with your contract before you make any decision,” he said.
“I am not going to tell you to sign a contract, I am not going to encourage you to sign a contract, although I really hope you do.
“The only thing I would encourage you to do is to make sure you have actually read the contract and the variation to that contract before you make a decision, because I am absolutely confident in my heart that the solutions put forward, the changes to that contract that the government is putting forward, address all of the issues.”
But without changes to the Industrial Relations legislation, a move Health Minister Lawrence Springborg has said is all but impossible, the doctors at Wednesday’s meeting said they still could not support the contracts.
Mr Maynard has offered to hold another meeting Thursday morning in another attempt to resolve the issue. The deadline to sign the contracts is April 30. Doctors at Wednesday night’s meeting said they still could not rule out resigning, if the legislative protection they seek is not made to the state’s IR laws.
You can watch the complete video from the meeting here. Dr Chris Davis’s speech is minutes 28-36