The Otago District Health Board is planning for a limited strike by junior doctors signalled for later this month, but it is too early to tell what services might be affected.
Yesterday, New Zealand Resident Doctors Association secretary Dr Deborah Powell announced considerably more than 80% of the doctors throughout the country had voted for the action, which is planned for the 48 hours to 7am on April 24, the day before Anzac Day.
The vote for strike action, which will not affect emergency services, follows almost a year of negotiations between the association and District Health Boards New Zealand on their collective agreement.
Support for the action had been overwhelming from resident medical officers (public hospital house surgeons and registrars) throughout the country, with the lowest vote from a small board area at 75%, Dr Powell said.
Otago's board employs 172 full-time equivalent resident medical officers at Wakari and Dunedin Hospitals.
Board operations manager Megan Boivin said last night the board had begun its planning last Friday and was trying to determine what level of service it would need and how many staff it would have available, since not all doctors belonged to the union. Senior doctors would also advise on their level of coverage.
It would then be a matter of negotiating with the union over staff required for lifepreserving cover.
The situation would be a lot clearer in two or three days, she said.
Management hoped the strike could be averted, but it needed to carry out the planning, anyway.
The last time such action by junior doctors affected the hospitals was in June and July 2006.
Dr Powell said the strike could be avoided with some constructive negotiation from the boards, which had not moved from their 4% offer for each of two years, made in December. The union is seeking 10% a year for each of three years.
Just ‘‘sitting and smiling at each other across the table doesn't really work,'' she said.
DHBNZ spokesman David Meates said the demands of the union were significantly beyond other health sector settlements, which had been around the 4% mark.
‘‘We've offered this group a salary package that is in line with the nurses' settlement and the offer that senior doctors are now considering, but the union's response has actually been to increase its claim.''
The first day of the strike was the day parties were due to meet again with a mediator over the size of the demands, he said.
