As the countdown continues to the second junior doctors' strike, Dunedin Hospital has restricted its elective surgery list to ensure most patients are discharged by the time the strike begins on Wednesday.
Otago District Health Board operations manager Megan Boivin said yesterday some urgent surgery for patients already in the hospital was planned for early in the week and they would remain in hospital during the strike.
Mostly, however, the hospital had tried to organise surgery so patients were discharged by tomorrow night or Wednesday morning.
As with the last strike, the hospital will be able to deal with acute surgical cases during the strike, but elective surgery will not go ahead.
Mrs Boivin said if the strike was called off before Wednesday, there would be an urgent meeting to see what could be offered in the way of elective surgery.
However, yesterday there was no indication the strike would be called off, with District Health Boards spokesman David Meates drawing attention to the support of Health Director-general
Stephen McKernan for an independent commission to look into the recruitment, retention
and remuneration of junior doctors.
Such a commission would be similar to that proposed in recent negotiations between the boards and the senior doctors.
The New Zealand Doctors Association's Dunedin representative, Dr Logan Mitchell, said the commission idea had not been ruled out by the association, but it was felt it would not solve anything for this round of negotiations.
Both sides were stuck in a deadlock, he said.
A decision on whether the senior doctors' agreement has been ratified is expected on Wednesday.
