Junior doctors fearful of effects of Queensland medical dispute

Junior doctors fearful of effects of Queensland medical dispute #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors #qldjrdrs

The state’s next generation of specialists fear they may have to be trained elsewhere if the government and senior medical officers can’t work out their dispute.

A meeting of junior doctors held on Thursday night passed a resolution that they will not “work in environments without adequate supervision from senior doctors”, and urged the government to recommence negotiations.

They also voted to support senior doctors who choose not to sign the contracts proposed by the government, as well as calling on Health Minister Lawrence Springborg to extend the April 30 signing deadline.

Chief among their concerns is who will train them if SMOs carry out their threat to resign en masse.
A spokesman for Mr Springborg said fears about access “to continued training are not threatened unless militant unions seeking the resignation of senior doctors begin an industrial campaign of mass resignation”, but added “training requirements were addressed in government contingency planning”.

One of those contingencies, floated last week, was to hire more doctors from interstate and overseas.

But with at least one accreditation college, the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia, writing to Mr Springborg warning “sourcing specialists from overseas to fill service gaps is exceedingly difficult” because of a “world-wide shortage”, junior doctors remained concerned.

“The ramifications of this contract dispute are incredibly stressful for the entire population of junior doctors around Queensland,” said one junior doctor, who wished to remain anonymous.

“Replacement of SMOs engaged by colleges to act as supervisors is not really tenable. If they are attempting to do so through the recruitment of overseas doctors, the lag time between the recruitment and the time in which they can be accredited here and actually engaged in a supervisory role, makes it very difficult.

“Some colleges have said that they will move trainees from Queensland interstate, in order to provide them with training, which means that training will no longer occur in Queensland and that will absolutely strip away services from the public system. And they have already made it clear that accreditation standards will not be changed in order to meet any changes by the Queensland government to the medical workforce.

“So I think the level of stress and concern is quite significant.”

The doctor, who was halfway through her training, said colleagues who were closer to graduating were “increasingly worried” about the situation.

“There are some doctors who are due to sit fellowship exams in August, which is obviously after July when the contracts kick in and the uncertainty on what is going to happen with their supervisors and whether their ability to sit those exams is even viable, is incredibly stressful.

“Imagine having spent the past six or seven years of your career training towards this time and having that stripped away from you at the last minute – it is an incredibly stressful situation. I think even the whole concept of job security is also playing on their minds.”

She said junior doctors were “incredibly concerned over what it would mean for regional areas, as they already find it difficult to attract and indeed retain senior staff with the contracts as they stand”.

But the government is holding firm.

“Junior doctors can rest assured that individual contracts for senior medical officers protect the equitable treatment of public patients in our public hospitals,” Mr Springborg’s spokesman said.

“A key finding of the state’s Auditor-General is that current arrangements are unfair to public patients.

“…The changes to the contract arrangements made by the government answer every issue of concern raised by SMOs”.

The state’s senior doctors voted against accepting the government’s addendum to the contracts last Wednesday. Many have threatened to resign unless changes to the industrial relations act is made, providing them with legislative protections. The government has said it has finished its negotiations and no more changes will be made to the contracts. The April 30 deadline stands.