Springborg says deadline extension not possible in doctors’ contracts row #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg has ruled out extending the deadline for senior doctors to sign controversial new contracts.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has called for extra time in a bid to negotiate and prevent mass resignations.
It says junior doctors are now getting involved in the dispute amid fears they will lose support if senior medical officers follow through on threats to resign en masse over the agreements.
AMA president Dr Steve Hambleton says doctors and the State Government need more time to settle down and negotiate.
“I think that would be an opportunity to take some of the sting out of everything,” he said.
“We’ve certainly had lots of emotion and lots of anxiety and frustration expressed.
“If there’s a delay, that might just be enough to get people to calm down and allow us to look at a clarification of what we need to do to actually get an outcome here.”
Dr Hambleton says “real progress” had been made last week.
“It has been virtually derailed and we just need to think about the impact and what’s at stake here,” he said.
“Really, just take a little bit of time, to allow for tempers to settle and issues to settle down, so we actually can look at a fix, to get things back on the right track.”
New system of paying doctors
But Health Minister Lawrence Springborg says the deadline cannot be extended.
“The reason for that is that we have to go to a new system of paying doctors in Queensland,” he said.
“The auditor-general made recommendations around that.
He says doctors who choose to quit will not need to give as much notice.
“The doctors [who] were saying they’re going to resign or not – they’re required to give three months’ notice – they need to sign their contracts by the end of April,” he said.
“They only need to give two months’ notice now – before it was three months’ notice – it’s two months notice to allow them to actually be able to consider these contracts without any pressure on them.”
Resignation ‘written and ready to go’
Ipswich anaesthetist Dr Rob Thomas says his resignation is written and ready to go.
He says he will not sign a contract that can be altered at any time and many of his colleagues feel the same.
“It’s creating a lot of unrest,” he said.
“It means that nobody trusts this Government any more because they will not budge on really key principal things.
“They are not listening to the facts that there are a lot of people who are not believing the ever-changing goal posts that they are changing.”
Union has tried to hamper negotiations, Springborg says
Mr Springborg has also accused the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) of trying to hamper negotiations by telling doctors not to roll over and urging them to keep fighting to get the best possible deal.
But ASMOF spokesman Dr Tony Sara says he acted in the best interests of Queenslanders by urging doctors to fight for better work conditions.
Dr Sara insists he did the right thing.
“When the contracts are harsh and draconian and they’re akin to the Kanaka indentured Labor contracts of prior 1906, well. wouldn’t any person in their reasonable mind, interested in the care of the people of Queensland say, ‘don’t sign, there’s no other logical or reasonable or humane thing to do’,” he said.