Union says striking is 'last resort' to make Premier listen to requests
New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park pleaded with doctors at the last minute to call off their planned strike this week amid the risks of jeopardising patient safety.
Thousands of doctors under the Australian Salaried Medical Officers' Federation (ASMOF) will strike for three days starting Tuesday, which will leave NSW public hospitals operating under "skeleton" staffing.
"We want to be very clear with the people of NSW. Patient safety will not be compromised," said ASMOF President Dr. Nicholas Spooner in a statement last week.
But Park said in a statement this week that the strike will disrupt hospitals across the state.
"ASMOF's strike plans will disrupt our hospitals and health facilities across NSW – both emergency departments as well as planned surgeries – contrary to the union's claims patient care will not be impacted," the minister said.
"Preparations are now urgently underway to manage the impact on our patients. Patients with surgeries postponed will be contacted."
The strike follows a stalemate between ASMOF and the government over the amount of pay increase to doctors across the state.
ASMOF is calling for a 30% rise overall, while the government offered a 10.5% multi-year wage increase.
Park urged ASMOF to return to the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC), which has barred the federation from carrying out the strike action.
"This is not a union without options – it is inexplicable ASMOF would actively choose to jeopardise patient safety over resolving its claim in the IRC," Park said. "I say to ASMOF, it is not too late to return to the IRC."
The IRC ordered on April 1 that ASMOF cease organising and refrain from taking any industrial action on and from April 2 for a period of three months.
It ordered ASMOF, its officers, and employees to:
But ASMOF remained firm on its strike action a day after the IRC order was issued.
Spooner attributed the move to the government's failure to take any action and after it walked away from award negotiations.
"We've been negotiating in good faith for months, but the Government is still refusing to fix this crisis," he said.
"Striking is a last resort for us, and we are doing this so the Premier might finally listen and act."
Spooner said doctors are exhausted, burnt out, and leaving the public sector as they are left to work "dangerously long hours," including 16-hour back-to-back shifts and covering multiple roles due to staff shortages.
"We urgently need safe working hours, including a guaranteed 10-hour break between shifts, to ensure fatigued doctors are not seeing patients," he said. "It's demoralising and heartbreaking to work in a system that is breaking down in real time in front of us."
According to ASMOF, the strike will see:
"We don't want to strike. We want to care for our patients safely. However, we will not stand by while the NSW government allows the system to crumble. The system is not sustainable, and we cannot continue like this," Spooner said.
