Strike threat to hospital treatment

Patients may face longer waits for x-rays and scans from tomorrow as hospital radiographers start a week of rolling industrial action.

Auckland, Waitemata and Counties Manukau District Health Boards have been given notice of industrial action by medical radiation technologists from Monday.

Counties Manukau is likely to be the worst affected by the work-to-rule action.

Patients at Middlemore Hospital and Manukau Superclinic will face longer waits, the board's chief operating officer Ron Dunham said.

The board had been given minimum times that radiographers would spend on each procedure, meaning patients would be processed more slowly than usual.

"It is quite difficult, we are worried, and we'll monitor it on a daily basis," Dunham said.

Patients were encouraged to see their GPs before coming to the emergency department, who would be referring patients for private x-rays where possible.

The Auckland board said next week's action was minor and would not affect patients.

At Waitemata, some patients would be affected by limited industrial action, but would all be contacted directly.

The union representing radiographers said all health boards except Taranaki had been or would be included in the rolling action at some time.

Staff in Taranaki had settled a separate contract with a private radiography service.

Deborah Powell, national secretary for the Association of Professional and Executive Employees, said most of the action involved work-to-rule measures.

Radiation technologists had not been offered any pay rise under the national collective agreement, covering about 900 staff, after several months of negotiation.

Labour health spokeswoman Ruth Dyson said action of this sort was difficult for patients, and health minister Tony Ryall had called for ministerial intervention when in opposition.

"He might want to decide whether he really meant it or if it was political point-scoring," she said.

Ryall and District Health Boards New Zealand, which manages contract negotiations on behalf of boards, could not be reached last night.