The Government will create huge workforce shortages by effectively
ruling out constructive negotiations on pay rates for doctors,
Labour's health spokeswoman Ruth Dyson says.
"(Finance Minister) Bill English yesterday made it clear that
senior doctors would only be receiving a pay increase this year
because National was bound to deliver one because of a contract
negotiated last year, but that future increases were off the
agenda," she said.
Ms Dyson made her comment after a report on senior medical and
dental officers (SMOs) by the Director-General of Health's
commission released today showed senior doctors in New Zealand are
paid an average of 35 percent less than their Australian
counterparts.
Mr English told Parliament on Thursday that any pay increases in
the state sector would have to be met with gains in productivity.
Asked whether he was signalling to teachers and nurses that they
can expect no pay increases when their collective contracts expire
next year, Mr English said their jobs were among the most secure in
the country.
But Ms Dyson said creating a situation that failed to negotiate
contracts with frontline medical professionals in good faith would
be disastrous.
"Good sense has been thrown out the window and workforce
shortages will get worse," she said.
Mr English told Parliament that state sector pay settlements
would need to take account of fiscal constraint and of the need to
develop better ways of working without rapid growth in spending.
He noted senior doctors received a 4.25 per cent pay increase on
June 29, effectively a rise of $11,000 a year when their automatic
moves up a pay scale were taken into account. Nurses received a 4
percent increase in March, alongside automatic promotions which
meant the average nurse's pay was rising about $6000 a year.
"No one should take those pay increases as an indication of
settlements in the near future," he said. "That kind of pay rise
is no longer sustainable."
The report released today -- in the wake of last year's
contentious round of contract negotiations -- said senior medical
officers felt undervalued and were dissatisfied with their working
environment.
The SMO workforce had a 10 percent vacancy rate at September 30
last year, while international medical graduates made up 40 percent
of the workforce.
New Zealand was disadvantaged in the international market for
senior doctors because of geographical isolation, low remuneration
and smaller scale hospitals and communities, the report said.
To address the shortage in SMOs, New Zealand must increase the
number of doctors it trains and rectify the "deteriorating"
retention among those who are newly qualified.
District Health Boards (DHBs) and the Ministry of Health must
draw on the knowledge and expertise of SMOs, provide appropriate
space, tools and support, adjust the student intake to align it with
future service needs, improve the training and employment experience
of doctors and prevent contract negotiations from becoming
"difficult and protracted", the report said.
And the pay negotiations should be seen as a joint
problem-solving exercise.
Health Minister Tony Ryall said the ministry had begun
implementing 13 recommendations made in the report, and a progress
report will be made in December.
The Resident Doctors Association (NZRDA) general secretary Dr
Deborah Powell said tonight resident doctors could boost the numbers
of senior doctors if they also stayed in DHB employment in New
Zealand.
These "residents" work for up to 13 years after graduation from
medical school, to train, and Dr Powell said that when they were
lost to overseas recruiters, it hurt the number of doctors going
through specialist training.
"If you only concentrate on boosting medical student and senior
doctor numbers then the resident doctors will slip through the
cracks and overall our medical workforce crisis will continue,"
she said.
NZPA