Readers' views: Doctors' strike

Junior doctors began a five-day strike today over what they say are excessive working hours.

This Readers' Views page is now closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed their thoughts.

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Your views:

I am an RMO working for Auckland DHBs. I love my job and wouldn't change it for anything. I think medicine is a vocation. As cheesey as it sounds, I have wanted to be a doctor and help 'save the world' for as long as I can remember. I don't think people should do medicine if they don't feel this way. Despite these views, I am on strike for many reasons. The main reason being that I want our conditions to, at the least, stay as they are and I want the right to be able to negotiate my conditions of work. The article in the Herald today was another indicator of the lack of research behind this strike. I know you are just trying to sell papers but having quotes from Australian doctors (who have nothing to do with this strike) such as "I think the conditions of junior doctors are pretty good, compared to those of other Western systems. They don't have it worse than junior doctors in Australia." is a little silly when the major reason that the strike is happening is NOT for better anything but just to at the least keep things the SAME. We want to actually have a contract (ours ran out in January) and to be able to negotiate the terms of that contract with people that are interested in helping and making things better for RMOs (and therefore for patients) i.e. not negotiate with managers who have been qouted as saying that the hospital could run perfrectly well without junior doctors.
- Emma

I am related to one of the doctors quoted in the article, and I would just like to say to one of the other readers who posted their opinion: it's not 50 hour weeks that are being disputed, think a little closer to 80-100 hour weeks. As others have commented, a chronically over-tired and under-supported junior medical staff is no great means towards providing safe and reliable medical care. It is complete false economy to suggest that they should just shut up and carry-on, on the basis that they knew that long hours were involved when they signed up. If you prefer to be treated by professionals who may not have had a proper break within a 36 hour period, then you are by far more of a risk-taker than I am.
- Lyndal

I am a junior doctor from Christchurch. It is a certainly a shame it has come this far, and believe me it certainly was not a decision taken lightly. It's amazing how the whole issue can be represented with various different viewpoints. As other readers have pointed out, the crux of the matter is the dispute over the "Memorandum of Understanding", which the DHBs want to drastically change the employment conditions of the junior doctor with little as possible involvment from us. This of course is intrinsically linked to unsafe and longer working hours and other employment issues. The junior doctor workforce is already facing a crisis with shortages and undoubtedly things and this of course exacerbates things. We have been well supported by majority of the senior doctors who have generously provided the contingency support. I agree it surely is a shame and the disputes need to be resolved as soon as possible.
- Arif

I don't think many junior doctors would be opposed to a lower income for the opportunity for less working hours. When salaries are discussed during this debate, it isn't mentioned that income is based on an average number of hours worked. Less hours worked on average, less money. Each run (rotated 3-6 monthly) has it's own pay category based on workload. The assumption during this debate has been that hours will decrease but salaries remain the same. This will not be the case as less hours means lower pay category and less income. In my opinion this is a fair situation, and one that doctors are aware of and are happy to accept for the chance of actually having a life as well as work. Less working hours makes for a rested, alert professional that has the ability to make the best decisions possible. They also have the spare mental capacity to actually have a therapeutic relationship with their patient, rather than just struggling to get through the day.
- Helen

We faced some of the same working conditions 2 decades ago. Wasn't acceptable or safe then and is not now. We should not think that it is a necessary part of being a junior doctor. If NZers want to have good health then they need their doctors to he healthy. We have high rates of broken relationships, substance abuse problems and suicide. We weren't born that way.
- Dr Matt Wildbore

I am a Junior Doctor myself. I am not a member of the RDA and therefore won't be striking. I will, instead, be working the emergency roster put in place by the DHB. I am not a member of the RDA as I do not feel Doctors should strike and see no point in joining a union that does not represent my views. However, the reason behind the Junior Doctors strike is sound - they are NOT objecting to long hours and poor working conditions per se - although this is the story the RDA have fed to the media. They are protesting against a document called a Memorandum of Understanding, which, in essence, gives the DHBs a lot of power over Junior Doctors and leaves the doctors hours open to abuse. It is their FUTURE working conditions and terms of pay that the Doctors are worried about. The majority of my colleagues are very happy with their current work and pay. The heart of this disagreement, as I see it, is the constant degradation of doctors by management and DHBs. Once upon a time hospitals were run by doctors for their patients. Now we have to negotiate everything through management. Doctors have allowed management to have their way up until now - essentially doctors have just wanted to get on with their job - but enough, is enough.
- Dr Joanne Tooby

I think these young doctors have to much spare time to watch TV and feel their real lives don't match up to the excitement and glamour on the screen. Single mothers who are often turned away from emergency departments with their children and given third rate medical service in hospitals get $240 a week for 24 hour shifts every day and are permanently on call. That's nearly $12,000 a year compared to doctors $105,000. Doctors should do well to remember this next time they are accusing a mother frightened for her child's life of trying to get free medical care. I have no sympathy.
- Nicole

In any strike situation, it is worth bearing in mind that industrial action is never taken capriciously. A strike is a serious move and one that is often pyrrhic in its results and creates divisions in work places that can last for years. Before being hasty in our judgment as to whether the strike is justified or moral, it would be more helpful if ask why it has gotten to this point and how it can be remedied.
- David Dickinson

It's a bit rich for Dr Cullen to speak about inflationary costs associated with the Jnr Doctors pay claims. Where was his argument when the Members of Parliament got their raise? If you ask me I would rather cut the MPs' pay and give it to the Jnr Doctors. That way we would not increase the budget and inflationary conditions. In fact we would just make a lot better use of the money.
- Martin Hall

The neurosurgical registrars you have featured in your story routinely work 36 hour shifts at Auckland City Hospital - on call overnight and expected to come in and operate if a patient requires operation and then come in the next morning and do a full day's work with operations and clinics. Do New Zealanders really think these are safe working hours? Would you be prepared to be operated on by somebody who has been working for the last 30 hours? Doctors go to strike with heavy hearts but there is no other options left after trying for 18 months to reach an agreement. Although patients are inconvenienced by the 5-day strike, the hope is that it will achieve safer working conditions for everyone over longterm.
- Nadya

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy." So much for all the extra spending on the health sector the Labour party touted over National's promise to curb spending. Just as was predicted, Labour's spending has all gone to the bureaucracy - adding in more middle managers and other back-office staff instead of sending it to the coalface where it is needed. Labour scared the public into voting for them by giving dire warnings over the decrease in health sector spending the National party had proposed... but as National predicted, the extra spending Labour promised would not, in effect, be used wisely. In fact the extra spending by Labour is a complete waste of taxpayer's money. National's policy, while spending less in total, would have been used more effectively to improve conditions and worker satisfaction for crucial jobs like nurses and junior doctors. Hopefully the voting public will read between the lines at the next election.
- Mark

Oh dear, working for 50 or more hours a week in their chosen profession now seems more than the fragile junior physicians can take. God forbid that something like work should stand in the way of this weekend's ski trip, or next week's wine trail. Don't get me wrong, everyone is entitled to work-life balance, but when our so-called carers expect to be paid the same, yet work fewer hours (the crux of their dispute), it's pretty hard for the rest of us to see this strike as nothing more than greed. Congratulations to those registrars who have the public's best interest at heart and will not strike. To the rest of you, get a bloody life!
- Raj Thomson

While I have sympathy for the junior doctors and the long hours they work, the unfortunate reality is that there is a limited amount of money to go around. If I was to prioritize health board spending, it would be to the hard working people in the aged care and related industries who are getting paid peanuts (just above minimum wage for many) for providing an essential service to our community.
- Tony Milne

Today's Herald article states that "The health boards want to create a working party with members from both sides to look at working hours and conditions but the union has rejected this idea". I would just like to say that this is spin, propaganda by the DHBs to make them look reasonable and helpful. In fact that 'working party' they proposed was to have 7 members, 4 from management and 3 from the doctors - and to pass any proposals only a majority (ie, 4) would need to agree, leaving the doctors totally at the mercy of the managers, unable to counter any unwelcome proposals. That is not equitable: it is a mandate for dictatorship! Every year the junior doctors have to renegotiate their contracts, and every year they fight just to retain the status quo. They are not trying to put the squeeze on the management, rather they are fighting for their very lives. Give them what they need. It's only fair.
- Kylie

While long hours and low hourly pay are significant issues affecting resident medical officers, the primary motivation for the current nationwide strike for doctors is the Memorandum of Understanding. This document threatens our right to negotiate our work conditions in the future and adds yet another level of bureaucracy. Questions have been raised about patient safety over the next five days but answer me this, if the exodus of junior doctors to other countries due to deteriorating work conditions continues and is not abated, who will be caring for patients in the future?
- Don Lee

The strongest argument I have heard from the Health Boards for their case is that senior doctors do not support the strike. While this is not actually true since many senior doctors do support the strike, a great majority of them are with the junior doctors and believe in their cause for better working conditions. It is easy to see why senior doctors would not support the strike though. They will now have to do all those painstaking work junior doctors did over long hours, plus their own. So Health Boards are using this flawed argument to sway the public opinion towards them. Perhaps they know they can't win it any other way. After all, the fight is between one of the least trusted and one of the most trusted.
- Hassan

I fully support the strike carried out by these doctors. I work an 8-hour shift in a customer services position and by the end of the day just listening to our customers' problems makes me mentally fatigued. I can imagine the plight of these doctors who work up to 16 hours at a stretch dealing with health problems that could put themselves and the hospital at risk of legal action if something went wrong. They should work normal hours like everyone else so they are fresh and reinvigorated for the next day and also have time to enjoy quality time with their families.
- Errol D'Souza

I can't think of a profession where the people entering are more fully aware of the long hours involved. Junior doctors must know before they sign up that there will be a time when they will be expected to work long hours for average pay. Anyone entering the medical profession does so with full knowledge of working conditions. In years to come these doctors will work less hours for more money that most of us can dream of, especially if they become 'specialists'. I used to work ten or eleven hour shifts per day for half what junior doctors make, without the benefit of a powerful union to fight for my 'rights'. Junior doctors need to realise that they themselves signed up for this profession, a profession that many vulnerable people rely on, and this kind of action is affecting those they signed up to care for.
- Matthew Hatton

I read an article in which NZ doctors were surveyed years ago. It said the Asian doctor went into medical school in the pursuit of money. It seemed ridiculous. A person in a glasshouse shouldn't throw stones. The junior doctors are protesting over long hours. I feel sympathy for them. I think it could be solved by reducing the salary to hire more junior doctors. It could even be helped by using assistant doctors. A salary of about $60,000 to $70,000 is too high. $40,000 a year for junior doctors is enough. Doctor can get high salaries after they became senior doctors if they are good enough. We can't compare it with other Western countries such as the US, UK, Canada and Australia as we have a low GDP compared with those countries.
- Steve Hu

I was meant to be having surgery tomorrow, Friday 16th June, after being bumped from last week's schedule due to a more important case, which is fine. Now i have to wait another couple of weeks due to the strike. I do not have a negative view towards the strike, even with my operation yet again being put off. Obviously there is a serious issue to be looked at or the junior doctors would not resort to extreme measures. Maybe now they will be heard.I know i certainly wouldn't want to be put at more risk than is needed, in regards to my surgery, because the doctors have not had a descent rest.
- Natasha

I think it is disgusting that doctors and medical professionals can put the average person's wellbeing at risk all over a pay rise(money)and bad work conditions. My understanding was you studied for this type of career so that you could help, not make things worse. These medical personal should be ashamed for holding the country to ransom, we need good quality healthcare and I for one am sick and tired of healthcare strikes.
-Sandy

Please would some media organisation report on both sides rather than from the Health Boards and patients. I feel that the 'memorandum of understanding' is the real issue and not one part of the media has reported this correctly. Just because conditions are better here, than the UK and Australia, it reflects just how bad they are there.
Just remember that patient care ultimately suffers through longer working hours and demoralised staff!
I wish other professionals had the same morals and ethics as the doctors.
- Jayson Bryant

I know many junior doctors and I wouldn't want to be in their position at all. They work absurdly long hours and I am unclear how we can expect anyone to be in a functional state, capable of making crucial decisions regarding the health and well-being of the public when they have so little down-time and sleep. I suspect many would leave the profession if it wasn't for that fact that they have invested six years or so into training and have a huge student loan to match. While their salary is high, compared to the general public, they have no time to make use of it (their life consists of working, sleeping and eating). As they have noted, if worked out on an hourly rate, it's pathetic. The argument that conditions are equally as bad, or worse, overseas is irrelevant. Just because things may be bad elsewhere, does not excuse appalling conditions here. Doctor's are crucial members of society. I don't think anyone would want their health to be compromised by a sleepy, over-tired doctor, would they?
- Amiria

I am a senior doctor who trained in the UK - whilst I have a lot of sympathy for some of the issues raised, it seems to me that the conditions of work here are massively different to the UK. And we're known as "whingeing Poms"?? We work in a vocational profession, which is clear when we sign up, paid for by the general public (some of whom work much longer hours for much less pay). If we strike, it is the patients who lose out.
- Liz

In one way the strike will bring home a message that hospitals are places for emergencies only. This applies all the time. Today people with the flu will certainly get the message by existing staff normally prone to working 70 hour weekly shifts!
- Guy Kydd