Qld Health warns doctors won’t get extended deadline in contracts row #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
Queensland Health director-general Ian Maynard says doctors will not be given an extension beyond the current deadline of April 30 to consider the new changes to contracts.
Senior doctors remain at an impasse with the State Government over new individual contracts, despite Queensland Health making a number of concessions.
Mr Maynard met senior doctors yesterday in Cairns in far north Queensland to discuss an additional clause to the contracts arising out of recent talks.
It is his second visit to the hospital this month to discuss the issue.
He says the mass resignation campaign is not helping talks.
“It’s not helpful when southern union officials stand there with a big wad of papers claiming they’ve got resignations in their hand,” he said.
“It really is only resignation when the hospital and health service has received it and can act on it.”
Mr Maynard says he understands nine doctors state-wide have tendered their resignations directly to their health service, although he says that is in line with the number of resignations he would expect in the course of a year.
Together Union spokesman Dr Sandy Donald says the concessions do not go far enough and doctors have already started leaving the public health system in protest.
“We know a number of local health specialists have quit,” he said.
“They have said, ‘that’s it, I cannot do this any more, I am leaving’.
“The second thing is holding of resignations and at this stage we’re not reporting the numbers specifically – I can say there’s quite a lot.”
The chairman of the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, Bob Norman, will not reveal how many doctors have signed the contracts, nor how many have resigned in protest.
“Some of those resignations allegedly have been sent to unions in Sydney for them to hand over en masse at a later stage,” he said.
“A resignation is not a resignation until it’s received here and I don’t intend to do a running commentary on what’s rumoured to have happened.”