Strike threat keeps hospitals on alert

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Hospitals across the country remain on alert to take emergency cases from Auckland if a threatened strike by about 100 radiography technicians is not called off by late tomorrow.

The Association of Professional and Executive Employees returned to mediated talks with the Auckland District Health Board this afternoon, with the union preparing to reduce a claim for pay rises of up to 10.3 per cent.

A similarly reduced claim was tabled at mediation yesterday over a dispute by 36 heart and lung technicians, who are in the midst of a three-day strike due to end tomorrow and were seeking a 7.97 per cent rise, but the union is still waiting for a board response.

Meanwhile, the Employment Court is due tomorrow to hear an injunction application to stop the radiographers from walking off the job for four days from 7am on Tuesday, should today's mediation fail.

The heart and lung strike has already forced the postponement of non-urgent surgery and other treatment for about 250 patients, and the health board is delaying at least a further 1000 operations to clear the decks for any emergencies during next week's strike.

Nine cardiac patients were transferred yesterday from Green Lane Hospital for catheter studies and possible angioplasty operations at the privately-run Mercy Hospital.

The health board expects to decide today whether to transfer critically-ill patients to hospitals as far away as Wellington and Christchurch and is holding frequent meetings with St John Ambulance contingency planners.

It may fly the country's only liver transplant team to Christchurch Hospital if an organ for a critically-ill patient should become available from a donor during the radiographers' strike.

Wellington Hospital and the privately-run Ascot Hospital in Auckland are on standby to perform neurosurgery on trauma patients if necessary during the strike, while hospitals in Hamilton and Hawke's Bay may take those needing ventilation.

Hospitals closer to Auckland, notably Middlemore and North Shore, are also preparing to postpone some elective surgery to make extra space available for emergency cases from throughout the region.

- NZ HERALD