Nobody is saying officially what the rate paid to doctors to carry out extra elective surgery on Saturdays may be, but the Otago Daily Times understands it could be up to $1000 above usual rates per procedure.
Ms Lobb said because the surgery could not go ahead without the doctors, they were in a strong bargaining position, but she did not feel their attitude was responsible.
The doctors were "creaming" the system and holding the district health board to ransom, she said.
If the speculation about the payments to the doctors was correct, such payments were "over the top".
The union had made its feelings known to the board, she said.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell described the comments as unfortunate, wrong and unfair.
He said he could not say whether nurses were being treated fairly in the situation, or whether they were receiving the recognition they deserved.
Those were issues separate from that of the doctors, who could not be expected to offer free labour outside their normal duties.
Asked if he could understand the view that some people might see doctors as greedy, Mr Powell said it would be unfortunate if people had that view.
If doctors were going the extra mile and undertaking extra work outside their usual activities, it would be counterproductive not to compensate them for it appropriately.
Ms Lobb said nurses involved with the work on the extra Saturday lists were paid overtime or weekend rates for their Saturday work, in the same way any of their colleagues would be for such work.
Many nurses were doing extra shifts and overtime throughout the hospital and the union considered it unfair for the Saturday elective-related nurses' work to be rated higher.
Mr Powell said it might be necessary for the Southern District Health Board to look at the possibility of increasing its specialist workforce in future so it could more readily meet the demand for extra elective surgery being sought by the Government.
Chief operating officer at Dunedin Hospital Vivian Blake said she was unable to discuss the pay rate for the doctors.
She accepted there had been some disquiet over the issue but said "what we have tried to do is to be fair and consistent".
The board had tried to stay within the rates of the multi-employer collective agreements, but that was not always possible because some staff sought higher rates.
People did not want to work at weekends and the board had to "pay a premium" because of that.
The financial report of the Otago board to the end of March showed senior medical officer allowance payments were $1 million over budget, and overtime payments for senior and junior doctors were up $700,000.
Nursing overtime payments for the year to the end of March were $300,000 over budget.
These figures had not been broken down to show how they related to the Saturday surgery.
