KEY POINTS:
One of Auckland City Hospital's most senior doctors has been lured to Australia by a salary package that doubles his earnings and he warns that pay hikes are needed to stem the loss of specialists.
Dr David Knight, 58, is the clinical director of newborn care and the former clinical leader of Starship and National Women's Health. When he leaves in April, he will be the second of the newborn service's six neonatal specialists to go within five months.
Dr Knight stepped into the clinical director role - which he had held previously - to replace Dr Carl Kuschel, who left in December to work in Melbourne.
Dr Knight said the size of the pay rise offered to him by Mater Mother's Hospital in Brisbane for a similar position was "too big to ignore".
He is part of a wave of NZ citizens crossing the Tasman long-term or permanently. Official figures this week showed the net outflow of migrants to Australia stood at nearly 28,000 last year, the most in nearly two decades. Higher pay is said to be a key reason.
Ahead of his leaving, Dr Knight has penned a sharp warning to the Government on the transtasman medical salary chasm and the pay dispute with the senior doctors' union - a dispute that is inching towards limited strike action possibly in April, unless talks and a new employer offer next week can break the impasse.
"The New Zealand public health service has to wake up to the market over the Tasman," Dr Knight says in the unsigned letter to co-unionists which was made public yesterday by the union. "It is not just established specialists like me leaving, but there is a greater number of trainees not returning to New Zealand and other specialists in the UK who want to come out to the antipodes but see Australia as the better option.
"The district health boards might not be able to close the gap at once, but they must recognise the size of the gap and its implications. They need to realise that the gap needs to be addressed and progressively closed over a fairly short time."
Dr Knight said the health boards' pay offer was far too small. Even the union's claim was too little. Annual increases of 10 per cent for a decade were needed.
"Senior medical officers are well paid in New Zealand for New Zealand conditions. We all have six-figure salaries, but they don't compare to some Australian states; they don't compare to private practice."
The union's executive director, Ian Powell, said it appeared that departures of senior doctors to Australia had increased to more than one a week because of "frustration with the system" and as the pay gap kept widening following the collective agreement's expiry in June 2006.
The junior doctors' union, too, reports an acceleration in members heading for Australia and its higher pay, a situation it calls a crisis.
But the health boards are unmoved. Spokesman David Meates said one senior doctor a week equated to a turnover of less than 2 per cent. "It's a small amount."
SALARY GAP
* New Zealand senior doctors on the top step of their collective agreement are paid a base salary of $163,500 at district health boards.
* Typically they would receive an extra 25 per cent in extra pay and allowances for working more than 40 hours a week, after-hours availability, and after-hours work (time and a half), increasing their pay to $204,375.
* Superannuation: 6 per cent employer contribution.
* Continuing medical education expenses reimbursed, up to $8000 a year.
* In Australia, these doctors can earn more than A$350,000 ($397,300).
* This includes allowances of at least A$40,000 for treating private patients in a public hospital and A$20,000 for continuing medical education.
* Superannuation: 12.75 per cent employer contribution.
THE NZ WAGES DISPUTE
* The union says it is claiming a pay rise of around 11-12 per cent over two years.
* The district health boards say they are offering about 20 per cent over four years.
