Lawrence Springborg says new plan will see word “profitability” removed from doctors’ contracts #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
HEALTH Minister Lawrence Springborg will attempt to end the war with public hospital doctors by making new concessions to his government’s controversial doctor contracts.
Mr Springborg will today set about selling his latest plan to resolve the ongoing industrial feud by removing all reference from the “profitability” in the contracts ahead of a meeting of doctors in Brisbane on Wednesday night.
He will also roll an addendum, which was tagged onto doctors’ contracts last month to provide some safeguards to their concerns, into the body of the contract.
Mr Springborg said he believed the changes would provide the extra assurances doctors needed to be able to sign their contracts by the April 30 deadline.
The changes come as doctors opposed to the contracts ramp up their campaign, taking out a full page advertisement in yesterday’s newspaper warning it had more than 1000 resignation letters.
Mr Springborg’s said he had already planned to roll the addendum to the contact into the document at an upcoming review, but had pushed forward the plan in response to doctors concerns.
Doctors have accused the Newman Government of placing profits before people by referring to the profitability of the hospital in the contracts.
They also questioned why a series of concessions in the addendum to the contract, including removing the right of the department’s Director-General to unilaterally change contracts, could not be included in the actual contract itself.
Mr Springborg yesterday told The Courier-Mail the use of the “profitability” in the contracts had caused some concerns among doctors and would be deleted from the document.
He said the word had been used in a section on grounds for termination of an employee and had been designed to “promote respect for the protection of public health resources.”
“That was to ensure that taxpayers’ dollars were respected to the maximum and that we got the maximum amount of treatments for each dollar,” Mr Springborg said.
He said doctors had also asked for the addendum to be rolled into the contract.
Doctors will also be put in charge of advising Mr Springborg on the development of key performance indicators, which will be attached to doctors’ remuneration for the first time after the end of a two-year moratorium. The moratorium will ensure doctors’ pay is not immediately tied to performance.
It is almost a month since Mr Springborg introduced a series of concessions to the original contracts after they were heavily criticised by doctors. The concessions were later rejected by doctors at a meeting organised by the “Pineapple Hotel” group of doctors.
Mr Springborg will now attempt to sell his latest solution to the dispute at a meeting of doctors in Brisbane on Wednesday night.
He has consulted with Australian Medical Association president Dr Steve Hambleton, who has indicated that the plan was headed in a positive direction.
Source: Courier Mail