Doctors' peace talks collapse in acrimony

Talks to end the junior doctors' strike collapsed in bitterness yesterday, both sides stepping up their verbal attacks in the battle for public sympathy.

Although public hospitals reported they were coping well after day one of the five-day national strike, the employers accused the union of putting members ahead of patients, and the union indicated a second walk-out was possible.

District health boards' advocate Nigel Murray said after yesterday's talks: "We've gone backwards. It's a sad day when people with a duty of care to save lives feel it's necessary to hold thousands of patients to ransom ... We need a new way of working. We can't continue this way."

But Resident Doctors Association secretary Deborah Powell said their claim had created the strike. "They are refusing to budge on their position."

She said the union executive was discussing its position with members, talks that "possibly" included taking further industrial action.

The strike by around 2000 of the country's 2500 house surgeons and registrars has led to the postponement of non-urgent surgery and outpatient appointments for 17,000 patients.

Public hospitals are providing only urgent and maternity care.

According to the health boards, around a quarter of junior doctors on the day shift nationally and 45 per cent at Auckland City Hospital turned up for work yesterday, which suggests a notable minority of unionists became strike-breakers.

Dr Powell attributed the higher Auckland figure to threats.

"We have had reports of residents [junior doctors] being told: 'If you don't turn up you won't work again'."

A health boards' spokesman said they had had reports of the union threatening junior doctors with expulsion from the union if they worked during the strike.

The health boards have offered a 2.9 per cent pay rise, but also want a small group of union and employer representatives to overhaul junior-doctor rosters and working hours, with the aim of increasing hospital efficiency.

Hours, rather than pay, and the proposed committee are the crux. Both sides say they want a drop in hours, but the boards say nurses and senior doctors need to be involved in this too.

The union also wants a small but undefined pay rise. A first-year doctor's pay package now is worth about $70,000 including superannuation, holiday pay and training costs.

The union says junior doctors' hours are too long, leaving them tired and at risk of harming patients. It highlights the practice of working seven consecutive nights of 10-hour shifts once in every four weeks.

The boards state average hours are 55 to 58 a week, acknowledging junior doctors will sometimes work much longer, and that "many" work less.

The Auckland board's director of clinical training, Dr Stephen Child, said on certain shifts junior doctors sometimes had little work to do.

Dr Powell said the proposed "committee" would destroy the multi-employer collective agreement (Meca) which sets pay and conditions.

But Dr Murray, the boards' advocate, said the proposed working group would give junior doctors "an effective veto over any suggestions they don't like" and existing conditions would be protected.