A salary increase of 13.3% during three years, more allowances for continuing education and a one-off $10,000 lump sum payment are some of the features of a proposed settlement between senior doctors and district health boards, it was revealed yesterday.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists members will be voting on the proposed settlement during the next month.
The results will be considered by the doctors' union national executive on May 8.
The national executive said despite some disappointing features in the proposed settlement, it was recommending members endorse it.
The executive was not happy with the long-term effects of of the settlement, which if accepted would run until April 2010.
Association Otago representative Chris Wisely said he had not received much feedback yet, but the general feeling seemed to be senior doctors were ‘‘just pleased to be getting on with it''.
‘‘There is a sense of relief about the place that there is something in writing.''
The proposed settlement had a good emphasis on health boards having to consult senior doctors about significant changes, Dr Wisely said.
‘‘I think there is a real fear that doctors are having their autonomy eroded away and that they will not have an active say in what goes on in the hospital.''
The increased limit for continuing medical education expenses, which will double by 2009 to $16,000, was also useful, he said.
However, doctors could still only travel to conferences if they could get cover for their absence.
While the senior doctors' settlement proposes three 4.25% salary increases by 2009, Dr Wisely said he did not think junior doctors seeking three 10% salary increases was excessive.
Junior doctors have been negotiating with district health boards for almost a year and are threatening strike action on the Tuesday and Wednesday before Anzac Day.
While Otago was ‘‘relatively well off'' for junior doctors, some areas were struggling to cope with shortages, he said, and there was a need to address the ‘‘overseas drain'' of resident medical officers (public hospital house surgeons and registrars).
‘‘Those junior doctors today are tomorrow's senior doctors, so we want them here.''
