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Community doctors and nurses are concerned strike action planned by junior doctors next week will lead to further frustrating delays for thousands of patients.
About 2000 doctors walked off the job for two days last week in support of a pay rise of 10 percent a year for the next three years, and will take strike action again next Wednesday and Thursday.
Negotiations between district health boards (DHBs) and the doctors' union resumed this week in a bid to avert the further strike action but broke down without agreement on Wednesday.
The Independent Practitioners Association Council (IPAC) - which represents about 800 community practices nationwide - has called on both sides to urgently resume talks in a bid to avoid further disruption to patients.
IPAC said more than 8000 patients nationwide had non-urgent operations or outpatient appointments cancelled during the first strike.
Chairwoman Bev O'Keefe said those patients would have been referred back to their local GPs and would need ongoing care as they waited for new appointments.
Dr O'Keefe said another strike would only compound the problem.
Contingency plans have been drawn up in the event of the strike going ahead.
The DHBs say they will talk with the doctors' union, the Resident Doctors Association, up until the strike date, but its national secretary, Deborah Powell, told NZPA yesterday it would need assurance talks would be held in good faith before returning to the table.
Dr Powell said talks held this week had been frustrating, as the DHBs had not arrived at the table to negotiate - they were only prepared to discuss two options which had already been rejected by the doctors.
DHBs spokesman David Meates dismissed her claim as "ludicrous".
Dr O'Keefe said community clinics would prioritise appointments and accommodate requests wherever possible but some delays were inevitable.
"In the long run this sort of disruption puts pressure on general practices as well as hospitals and patients unfortunately end up joining another queue for treatment."
The employment contract covering junior doctors expired in June 2007 and the two parties have failed to reach agreement since then.
The doctors say a base rate of $23 an hour is too low for the job they do, while DHBs say it equates to an annual wage in excess of $80,000.
Doctors have said improving pay and conditions is the only way to halt the mass exodus of junior health practitioners overseas.
Resident doctors typically work 12 days without a break and, when on night shift, they can work seven hours a night for 10 nights in a row.
- NZPA
