Doctors' strike impacts service performance

Sixteen Whanganui junior doctors return to work at 8am this morning at the end of their 73-hour strike action.

The strike has seen 39 outpatient appointments and three elective surgeries postponed, Whanganui District Health Board chief executive Julie Patterson said.

"The senior doctors have been managing really well and, in most of the place, it's been business as usual - plus we've still got quite a number of junior doctors working," Mrs Patterson said.

The strike involves a complete withdrawal of labour by junior doctors who are members of the New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association.

There are 37 junior doctors employed by the Whanganui Health Board - 21 are not members of the association.

Mrs Patterson admitted the strike would impact on the board's ability to met health targets set by the Government.

"We've lost five days now, two days last strike and three days this strike.

"It will affect our elective service performance, but we're pretty confident that, with careful planning and the rescheduling, we will stay SV compliant.

"Prior to the strike - and nothing to do with the strike - we had a problem with neurology with waiting times and this has just made it a little bit worse."

If the health board doesn't meet health targets, there can be financial penalties imposed by the Ministry of Health.

The strike is about the association's campaign for safer working hours, but Mrs Patterson said its demands had been met.

"The union claims revolved around what they claimed to be health and safety issues," she said. "The 20 health boards agreed to meet all demands around those claims, but that still hasn't satisfied the union."

She said New Zealand junior doctors now had the best working conditions and pay in the western world.

She said the association was trying to control how rosters were organised, something unacceptable to health boards, but she believed negotiations would be successful.