Editorial: Patients weary of posturing

Junior doctors will trudge back into their wards and emergency rooms this morning with little to show for their five-day strike, which delayed treatment for about 17,000 New Zealanders. It is to be hoped that the doctors used their time profitably and eliminated the sleep deficits which they believe make them so potentially dangerous to patient welfare as they work overlong hours. For there is no evidence of any other benefit from this latest display of industrial theatre.

Hospitals coped. Senior doctors who pitched in were paid a few dollars more for their trouble. The union ran through the usual allegations of management intimidation and threats of further strike action as the present action began to sputter. District health boards talked up the number of junior doctors who had decided to work. The boards' spokesman adopted an increasingly belligerent tone as indications emerged of divisions within the union and within the medical profession. At a late point yesterday, mediation began.

Meanwhile, the public watched this posturing wearily, hoping that those involved could simply fast-forward to the point at which they will surely soon arrive. The strike was, oddly, not about a rate of pay increase or specific changes to working hours, allowances or conditions. It was about the mechanics of how the two parties negotiate those issues. The health boards want a so-called memorandum of understanding which would see a joint committee of equal representation of junior doctors and DHB management work out any changes to conditions. The junior doctors fear a sidelining of their union (although after this strike it seems to have achieved that itself) and an imbalance of power on this new committee. Juniors, they worry, would have to sit across a table from their senior masters and chief executives.

There is talk, though, of a power of veto which could surely protect the junior doctors from being browbeaten by threats to their grades.

As in all such disputes, the claims and counterclaims are difficult to unpick. According to the protagonists, this strike was either about the future of the right to union representation or the future of the health system to be flexible and responsive to budgets and patient needs. In truth, it was far less profound in its scope. It was, sadly, a breakdown of what used to be called in the Middle East peace process "talks about talks". The entrenched positions and hyperbole from both sides have put thousands of anxious patients to one side for no real purpose. Talks about talks will resume and, eventually, the talks themselves will begin in some compromised form. In the meantime, this week is probably a good time to end up in hospital. The junior doctors should be well rested.