IT IS now up to Queensland’s doctors to decide whether or not they should sign on to the Newman Government’s new contracts after it reached an in-principle agreement with doctor groups late yesterday.
Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said the mass doctor resignation threat, which could have crippled the Queensland Health system, had been taken off the table and it was now up to each doctor to sit down and decide whether their contract was right for them.
He said doctors would now have an extra month to sign, with the deadline extended by a month, to May 31.
“We’ve reached agreement in-principle. There are no outstanding issues,” Mr Springborg said of the public hospital doctor contract dispute, which began last year after the Government passed legislation paving the way for public hospital doctors earning $130,000 or more to be put on contracts.
“They believe, as we have resolved the issues, there is no need to proceed with any mass resignation campaign and concurrent with that, I have briefed Cabinet and Cabinet has agreed as well … and supports my recommendation that we extend the date for doctors to sign up by an extra month.
“That will mean that doctors don’t have to worry about the short weeks over Easter and the new contracts will be issued over the upcoming days.
“We will be able to go forward from there. The new date that it will take effect will be August 4.”
Mr Springborg said the department had been holding daily meetings with doctor groups since last Wednesday in a bid to reach an agreement.
“It was just a matter of the spirit of the addendum being properly incorporated in the contract, to make sure that the wording and everyone was happy with that,” he said.
“What we have got is an external process of review in the event that they can’t get agreement within the contracts advisory committee around what are issues of pay increments and a periodic review of the contract tiers.
“That is something we should actually do because we are currently about the best across the country and we want to make sure that we continue to be there.”
Australian Medical Association Queensland president-elect Dr Shaun Rudd said his organisation would be advising its members to consider signing the contracts.
“We will be advising our members that the contract is much better,” Dr Rudd said.
“It’s still an individual contract so they still have to make an individual decision themselves but we can see no reason at this stage why they shouldn’t seriously consider signing their contracts.
“We think the mass resignation is not required.”
Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation president Dr Tony Sara thanked the Government for returning to the negotiating table.
“We are now in a position where we expect to have a contract that can be put to the state’s doctors to vote on,” Dr Sara said. “Ultimately it’s up to doctors, but given the progress on negotiations, we don’t see any reason … for doctors to look at resigning.
“There are still a small number of key matters that remain to be resolved. Our expectation is that these matters will be rectified prior to the mass meeting of doctors on Wednesday.”
Doctors are still expected to meet tomorrow night to discuss the contracts with Mr Springborg.
The Health Minister said he was relieved to have reached an agreement.
“I always knew it would be something that we would be able to resolve,” he said.
Source: Courier Mail