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Ballarat doctors slam government EBA inaction
29 August 2008
Medical Staff at Ballarat Health Services slammed the Victorian Government for its lack of progress in offering a new enterprise bargaining agreement for the state’s public hospital doctors at a meeting with AMA Victoria yesterday.
The public hospital doctors’ enterprise bargaining agreement expired on 30 June and a new agreement is yet to be reached.
“We’ve been without an EBA for eight weeks and our negotiations with the government are slow and inadequate,” AMA Victoria President Dr Doug Travis said. “The current government proposal does not offer pay parity with other states or address many of the major problems within our public hospital system.”
“Doctors don’t want the distraction of a long and drawn-out process; they want to concentrate on patient care. We have said all along that we are happy to reach an agreement early on and that offer remains open.”
AMA Victoria has been meeting hospital doctors across the state to seek feedback on the current proposal, hear concerns and discuss options for future action.
The Ballarat Health Services junior and senior medical staff passed a resolution condemning the government’s slow progress and failure to make hospital improvements.
A Ballarat Health Services surgical registrar who attended the meeting told AMA Victoria she finds it “frustrating that I am regularly told that there isn’t enough money to see or treat the patients who need medical care until they are in a crisis”.
Another Ballarat junior doctor noted her salary was considerably lower than his interstate colleagues. “I am seriously considering working interstate in 2009, which is sad because I went to medical school and did my early training in Victoria, so I know the system well,” she said.
The Ballarat doctors said the Health Minister had been sitting on a review of public hospital medical staff for the past eight months. The review notes that poor conditions and low morale in Victorian public hospitals are driving doctors away from the public sector
So far only seven of the 71 recommendations have been implemented and Ballarat doctors say the lack actions is “adversely affecting patient safety, health care quality and recruitment and retention of doctors in Victoria”.
Dr Travis said without significant public hospital reform, Victoria risked losing the best and brightest doctors to the private sector for better conditions or interstate for more attractive salaries.
“We expect the government to get serious about a new EBA now so doctors can focus on patient care. While we wait on an offer, we want to see some of the problems in Victoria’s public hospitals addressed.”
Failing a meaningful response from the Health Minister the Ballarat Medical staff will meet in October to consider potential action.
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