Doctor-government relations healing #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
Doctors’ representatives are “cautiously optimistic” the dispute between the state’s senior medicos and the government is almost at an end.
A meeting of the ‘Pineapple’ groups has been postponed until next week to give the state’s 3500 senior medical officers a chance to review the concessions and changes the government made to the individual contracts it is offering on Monday.
The new contracts, which remove the term ‘profitability’ and include the addendum provisions created to address the key concerns raised by doctors within the contract body, will be mailed out as soon as possible.
Intensive care specialist John Fraser, who is one of the doctors’ advocates, said the government’s offer was “a very good start” to rebuilding trust lost during the dispute.
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“I’d say we are cautiously optimistic,” he said.
“As a mark of good faith to show we are very keen to resolve this, we have postponed our next meeting to give them enough time to get the contracts right and give doctors time to analyse it and go from there.
“We will then be delighted to invite [health minister] Lawrence Springborg to the meeting.”
Doctors and the government had seemingly reached an impasse last month, after SMOs rejected an addendum the government had created in consultation with doctors’ representatives, which addressed their key issues with the contracts.
Doctors remained concerned the addendum would not offer legal protections and questioned the need for the term ‘profitability’.
A war of words broke out between the government and doctor unions, with both accusing the other of betrayal.
But with Mr Springborg remaining steadfast on the April 30 signing deadline and doctors talking about mass resignations, both groups called for a return to the negotiating table.
“Now we’ll wait until we have something concrete we can discuss,” Professor Fraser said.
“The fact is, it is going in the right direction. What they have said sounds great, but as with any contract, you have to wait to see the detail.”
Source: Brisbane Times