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A Hawke’s Bay doctor often working 70-hour weeks - which include 32-hour weekends more than once a month - says she feels disillusioned about the career she signed up for.
Kate Saunders, a senior house officer at Hawke’s Bay Hospital in obstetrics and gynaecology, became adoctor to help people on the frontline.
“I wanted to see the change that I was making and I also wanted to help with inequities in New Zealand with Māori people, Pasifika people, and low socio-economic groups.”
Kate Saunders said she often works a 70-hour work week. Photo / Paul Taylor
She is part of the team of doctors bargaining with Te Whatu Ora for better working conditions for junior doctors. She is also a delegate and executive member of the New Zealand Resident Doctors Association (NZRDA).
She said they were striking for several reasons, including pay rises they say will put more value on junior doctors and stop a “mass exodus” of doctors to Australia.
The 26-year-old said she wanted put a stop to the rostering of double-long days (two 16-hour days in a row), which she does twice every seven weeks.
She also wanted to stop the removal of incentives for accelerated advancement, and decrease the cap for pay for registrars who aren’t yet in a training programme from seven years to five years.
“[It] is a confidential process, but Te Whatu Ora has asked us to share that they are taking pay cuts off the table.”
Saunders grew up in Masterton before moving to Dunedin to study medicine, completing three years of academic studies and three years of clinical studies and graduating as a doctor in 2021.
Now three years into her first job at Hawke’s Bay Hospital, she said she wasn’t prepared for the challenges that came with the profession - challenges that weren’t related to clinical work.
“I think people should have to do a week as a junior doctor before they decide to do the career and see if they are ... willing to make the sacrifices.”
Saunders said she felt “disillusioned” about what it meant to be a doctor in the public health system when working 70-hour work weeks.
Kate Saunders says she has questioned being in the health profession. Photo / Paul Taylor
She said working conditions were ”pretty grim” and her department had many vacancies, which was adding to rostering concerns.
“Some days I think ‘Why did I do this? It’s not worth it’. But this is what I want to do and I am prepared to make a lot of these sacrifices.”
Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand chief people officer Andrew Slater said Hawke’s Bay Hospital remained open during the strikes. The impact on hospitals varied from region to region, he said.
“Before the strike some procedures and clinics were cancelled or deferred so more urgent clinical work could be prioritised.”
Slater said Te Whatu Ora was disappointed the NZRDA continued to announce new strikes despite facilitation continuing and against the recommendation of the Employment Relations Authority.
“We reiterate Health NZ’s offer to the NZRDA would provide a pay increase to every junior doctor covered by the agreement. The average pay increase offered is 18%. No one would have a pay cut.”
Slater said Te Whatu Ora acknowledged that 24/7 cover in any industry could give rise to rostering and fatigue concerns.
“The current rosters have been developed within the frameworks of the various employment agreements applying to multi-profession teams in each service.”
Health NZ had offered a structured process to work with Resident Medical Officers (RMOs) and the unions to address concerns about weekend rostering.
Slater said any changes needed to consider the impact on all workforces such as senior doctors and nurses to ensure patient safety and continuity of care and follow the change processes set out in collective agreements.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay newsrooms. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and has a love for sharing stories about farming and rural communities.
