Doctors vote to strike over hours

More than 2500 junior doctors say they will strike if no action is taken to curb their long hours.

Resident Doctors' Association general secretary Deborah Powell said members had voted to strike, and while a date had not been set, it would be "imminent".

They say their working hours are dangerously long and are demanding district health boards act now.

"We've been in negotiations for six months now and the employers have not made any substantive concessions," Dr Powell said today. "We have run out of patience."

She said the major sticking point was the long hours worked by junior doctors in hospitals.

Resident doctors typically work 12 days without a break, and when on night shift, they can work 10 hours a night for seven nights in a row.

"We are exhausted and we are making mistakes; patients are suffering," Dr Powell said.

Resident doctors first issued notice of strike action last year but then withdrew it after the employers promised change.

While staff shortages exacerbated the problem, it was possible to manage existing rosters better, Dr Powell said.

Last year, two trials of a different roster system were carried out.

They were "very successful" from the junior doctors' point of view, and did not require extra staff.

However, district health boards were reluctant to adopt the new system because it might cost them more money, she said.

"Their latest offer is 'let's form another committee and discuss it some more'. "But we've had enough of committees -- it's time for action."

Since 2001, the Ministry of Health had spawned numerous committees to look at workforce issues, she said.

"The Minister's latest initiative is to form an 'action committee', which sounds like a committee with tights on."

Junior doctors were leaving hospitals because of the poor conditions, leading to worse staff shortages, which meant those who were left had to work even harder, she said.

"We are stuck between a rock and hard place here, but we have to do something to do something to improve conditions and fix conditions or we'll just keep losing clinicians."

- NZPA