Although Dunedin Hospital's emergency department was reasonably busy on the first day of the junior doctors' strike yesterday, it still had 39 beds available last night.
From 7am yesterday, an estimated 2400 junior doctors around the country began their second 48-hour strike to support the pay claim they believe is needed to stop young doctors heading to Australia to work.
Otago District Health Board operations manager Megan Boivin said attendance at the emergency department had been steady most of the day, with between 20 and 25 patients there most of the time.
There was no common cause for people's attendance and no huge numbers were admitted, she said.
Before the strike, the hospital had fewer beds available than she would have liked, but this situation eased somewhat yesterday, after some patients were discharged.
Occupancy last night was about 83%, with an adequate number of critical care beds available, and Mrs Boivin described the situation as ‘‘ quite comfortable''.
The strike is due to finish tomorrow morning and some elective surgery which has already been arranged will be performed, but the usual elective surgery schedule will not be restored until next week.
General practices contacted in Dunedin yesterday did not appear busier than usual.
Dunedin Urgent Doctors and Accident Centre, which had been unusually quiet during the strike two weeks ago, had about the usual number of patients yesterday, practice manager Belinda Watkins said.
The centre made sure it had extra cover, if needed, in case it got busier.
During the last strike, it appeared some patients might have stayed away when they should have sought treatment from a general practitioner.
If people were sick with an illness which required treatment from a GP, they should still seek that, she said.
Some people may have taken the instruction to stay away from the emergency department at Dunedin Hospital unless they needed urgent treatment to include not seeking any treatment at all.
New Zealand Resident Doctors Association representative Dr Logan Mitchell said he hoped this second strike would be the last and there would be some common sense from both sides of the dispute.
The union had indicated the final figure it would settle for would be between the 4.25 % increase offered by the district health boards and the 10% it was seeking. He hoped there would be some movement from the boards on this.
The union's national executive and the employers' advocate met informally yesterday afternoon.
Dr Mitchell said the message he was getting from patients was that they were sympathetic to the junior doctors, but keen to see the situation resolved.
The strike affected patients and their families and also the training of junior doctors, who were missing operating days, he said.
