KEY POINTS:
Surgeons fear the laboratory workers' strike may jeopardise cancer patients' long-term survival.
Eleven surgeons from North Shore Hospital in Auckland have written to the Herald expressing their "considerable concern" over patient safety as a result of the strike.
The strike by 1200 members of the Medical Laboratory Workers Union ends at 8am tomorrow, but the disruption it has caused will not end then.
"There are at least 12 cancer patients in our department missing out on timely surgery," the surgeons say.
"With more patients referred every week, we are unable to offer them operations when they should have them. This may have consequences with regard to both their immediate care and long-term survival."
The clinical director of general surgery, Dr Eva Juhasz, said yesterday the patients included those with bowel, breast or liver cancer.
Surgery for elderly breast cancer patients had been postponed.
Only the younger ones were receiving operations, since they needed less laboratory support.
Their blood tests could be done on an automated analyser used in operating theatres which could perform a limited number of straightforward tests.
It was mainly the patients with abdominal cancers whose surgery had had to be put off, Dr Juhasz said, as they needed intensive monitoring with blood tests after their operation.
The surgery has been postponed because it does not qualify as immediately life-saving. With non-union staff and some union help, the hospital's laboratory is processing virtually only those tests deemed necessary to help save life.
Its sister lab at Waitakere Hospital is closed by the strike.
"Any person cancelled now probably will not get surgery till late January or February - a one- to two-month delay," Dr Juhasz said.
Cancer surgery should be done within two to six weeks of diagnosis, she said.
Although it was "unlikely" that survival would be affected by the delay, "we just don't know how it's going to affect their long-term outcomes.
"It's more the psychological thing as well. The patient knows they need an operation, then has to wait. It's very distressing for the patient and the family."
The letter says patients are suffering "continued abuse" from the strike.
"The hard-line stance of the negotiators on both sides has created an environment where the only people to suffer are the patients."
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons said the strike would inevitably have harmed patients.
It has joined the Orthopaedic Association and the Medical Council in calling for an alternative to strikes in the health sector.
The association and council have suggested replacing the right to strike with compulsory arbitration, similar to the system available in police pay negotiations.
College spokeswoman Dr Cathy Ferguson said this should be explored, but all parties should work harder on mediation and other methods to avoid strikes. The Government and district health boards do not support changing to compulsory arbitration.
Boards' spokesman Nigel Murray said the right to strike was fundamental. But it had wrongly been used as a primary tool by the Medical Laboratory Workers Union and unions representing radiographers, radiation therapists and junior doctors, all of which were linked to the leadership of Deborah Powell and all had struck this year.
Dr Powell denied being more militant than other union leaders and attributed the glut of action to contract timing and employer demands.
She said amending the Employment Relations Act to require union cover to avoid permanent disability as well as death during strikes - reflecting a voluntary code of the nurses' and senior doctors' unions - would be going too far.
Dr Murray said this was an outrageous admission which amounted to Dr Powell wanting to retain a tool that attacked patients and differentiated her unions from those committed to the voluntary code.
Delay hard to take
One of the North Shore Hospital cancer patients affected by the strike is worried about the cancer spreading while she waits for delayed surgery.
The 71-year-old woman from Henderson, who asked not to be named, was diagnosed with bowel cancer two months ago.
She was scheduled to have surgery yesterday but it has been postponed by the strike of technicians and other laboratory workers.
Her surgeon, Dr Eva Juhasz, said she hoped to squeeze the woman on to a theatre list next week, otherwise she would have to wait until mid-January, which was too long.
The woman said the delay was hard to take and made her worry about the cancer spreading.
"You feel they are going to do everything they can for you, then they cut your feet from under you.
"It doesn't do a lot for your confidence."
She was sympathetic to the union but "I think there should be other ways, more appropriate [than striking]".
THE STRIKE
* Ends tomorrow at 8am. Started last Wednesday.
* Involves 1200 members of the Medical Laboratory Workers Union.
* From 13 district health boards, three private laboratories and NZ Blood Service, but all hospitals affected.
* Causing severe restrictions on blood and tissue testing and supplies of blood products.
* Union members required to help out with work to preserve life, but not to prevent risk of permanent disability.
* More than 1000 elective surgery operations cancelled.
