KEY POINTS:
Health Minister David Cunliffe has accused the junior doctors' union, whose strike next week will delay treatment for thousands, of making "unrealistic" pay demands.
He told Parliament yesterday the Government would not agree to them, even if it was a two-month strike. He blamed the union and its general secretary, Deborah Powell, for health boards having to postpone an estimated 8000 elective surgeries and outpatient appointments.
Dr Powell said it was unfortunate that a "minister under pressure" had opted to attack her and the union, rather than addressing the key issue in the dispute: New Zealand's medical workforce crisis, marked by many junior doctors going into locum work or to Australia.
Mr Cunliffe said the union's pay dispute with health boards had not been settled this week "because of the unrealistic bargaining position of the Resident Doctors' Association".
The union had "not moderated its original claim of 20 per cent [pay rise] in two years. Now it is 30 per cent in three years".
"The people who will suffer from this strike are the patients and public of New Zealand ... the reason for this suffering is the bargaining tactics of the ... association."
He said most health sector strikes from August 2005 to February 2007 were related to negotiations run by Dr Powell's company, Contract Negotiation Services, which represented only 7 per cent of the health workforce.
The average first-year house surgeon earned $88,000, plus 6 per cent for superannuation, six weeks' holiday, two weeks' study leave and free meals, the minister said. "Many workers would consider that a reasonable package for a first-year graduate.
"There are many, many successes in the health sector, and one of them is the Government not folding to give Deborah Powell's union double what any other union in the health sector has got. It doesn't matter whether this strike lasts two days or two months, this Government is not going to fold in the face of such unrealistic demands."
Dr Powell said Mr Cunliffe's pay figures were misleading because they included costs like ACC levies and mileage. A new graduate's annual base salary was around $71,600 for a 60-hour week, which was the average.
And the union had moderated its pay claim in talks - which failed - this week to an amount less than the boards had offered to senior doctors.
National's health spokesman Tony Ryall said Mr Cunliffe's estimate of the number of patients affected was too low and he said it would reach 10,000.
STRIKE ACTION
* Junior doctors intend to strike from next Tuesday morning for 48 hours.
* An estimated 8000 patients nationally booked for elective surgery or an outpatient visit are having their appointments postponed.
* Auckland District Health Board is postponing 275 elective surgeries and 1248 outpatient appointments.
* Waikato Health Board is postponing about 420 outpatient appointments, 60 elective surgeries and 70 day-case procedures. It estimates costs and lost revenue from the strike will reach $2.5 million.
* Northland Health Board has postponed around 75 elective surgeries at Whangarei and Kaitaia hospitals, and most outpatient clinics have been cancelled for the strike period.
