Latest news with #ASMS
NZ Herald
03-08-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Middle ground needed in healthcare dispute for the sake of public
Health NZ and the Government are certainly aware of this, but reaching a solution is not as simple as agreeing to the demands of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO). Across the Government's Budget, Health NZ is competing with the funding needs of housing, education, transport and more, all amid a cost-of-living crisis for the average Kiwi. Health NZ offered nurses a 3% pay rise over 27 months, plus two lump sum payments of $325. The NZNO sought a 5% pay rise over two years, along with $2000 flat rate increases for senior positions. The union also sought to restore a tikanga Māori allowance. ASMS executive director Sarah Dalton earlier told the Herald hospital specialists sought a 12% pay rise but were being offered an increase of less than 1% per year. Health NZ has described its offers to nurses and senior medical staff as 'fair'. Dalton acknowledged at the time that 12% may not be achievable but said the dispute may not be settled without a better offer. There is room for Health NZ to manoeuvre between 1% and 12%. Dalton's acknowledgment shows that compromise, at least where ASMS is concerned, is not impossible. Health Minister Simeon Brown estimated 4300 procedures, such as hip and knee operations, were delayed because of the 24-hour strike on May 1. Wait times for elective surgeries have already ballooned since the Covid pandemic, and the wait for specialist appointments and operations has continued to grow in many regions. In February, the Herald reported all of the country's hospital emergency departments were failing to assess patients with 'imminently' or 'potentially' life-threatening conditions on time. Striking doctors and nurses have rightfully pointed out staffing issues, with Health NZ recognising another 4100 nurses were needed in the next decade, on top of 2250 nursing vacancies, despite half of nursing graduates not getting job offers from Health NZ last year. Another 3450 doctors were needed in the next decade to keep up with demand. Concessions are needed from both Health NZ and its striking staff. Sign up to the Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
02-08-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Bonuses promised for doctors in short-staffed areas, union says existing allowances aren't being paid
Photo: RNZ Health NZ is promising bonus payments to senior doctors who work in hard-to-staff areas, although the union is accusing it of failing to consistently pay allowances now. The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, which represents 5500 senior hospital doctors and dentists, has criticised Te Whatu Ora's new offer to its members as amounting to "an effective pay cut" for 90 percent of them. Union head Sarah Dalton was also sceptical of Health NZ's proposal to ring-fence $32 million over two years for an incentive to doctors to work in areas or specialities with particular shortages . The agency was already paying $384m a year on contingency staffing which was "driving people out of salaried into locum work and temporary gigs", and current systems for paying allowances were ad hoc and "shambolic", she said. However, Health NZ's industrial relations lead, Robyn Shearer, said incentive funding showed the agency was listening to what the union had to say about the need to retain staff in those areas. Specific details on how to allocate that money were yet to be agreed, she said. "We need to get round the table and work ... through that in the bargaining process. "Our intention is to work on that together with the union, so we are keen as part of proposed settlement to have it in agreement." Association of Salaried Medical Specialists's Sarah Dalton. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham Shearer agreed there was work to do on consistently applying allowances that had already been agreed, including the extra ED allowance that came out of the previous bargaining round. "We are definitely keen to work on better consistency - there's a big piece of work around application of allowances up and down the country, and we're keen to work with the union on that." Health NZ would "much rather" employ permanent staff than have to find locums, she said. "But there are good reasons for employing locums, including covering staff sickness and unfilled posts. They have an important role to play while we seek permanent long-term solutions." Health NZ's industrial relations lead, Robyn Shearer. Photo: RNZ Insight/Karen Brown Should Health NZ's offer be accepted, first-year specialists would get an extra $17,000 in their pay packets over the 21-month term, and second year specialists more than $11,000. "Senior doctors at the top of the pay scale would receive an increase to base pay of more than $9000 to more than $277,000 over the course of the proposed settlement. We think that's a very fair pay offer." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
01-08-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Senior doctors say Health NZ offer amounts to 'pay cut'
Health NZ said the new offer included "salary increases between 3.5 and 11 percent". (File photo) Photo: RNZ Senior doctors have criticised Health NZ's latest pay offer saying it amounts to a pay cut that won't cover inflation. Health NZ's lead for industrial relations, Robyn Shearer, said the new offer - which covered a 21-month term - included "salary increases between 3.5 percent and 11 percent depending on experience and funding for incentives to help retain senior doctors in hard to staff areas and specialities". "We value our doctors and want to do the best we can for them. We are committed to reaching a settlement with ASMS [the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists] and we believe the offer made today is a fair and reasonable one," she said. According to Health NZ the new offer means: Health NZ's offer also included a ring-fenced $34m fund to help retain specialists in hard-to-staff areas. "We have listened to the union on their concerns regarding growing and retaining our senior doctor workforce," Shearer said. Thousands of operations and specialists appointments had to be cancelled during the unprecedented 24-hour strike by 5500 members of the ASMS in May. ASMS executive director Sarah Dalton was doubtful the union's 5500 members would find the new offer acceptable. Health NZ had "misrepresented" what the offer would mean for first and second-year specialists, she said. "When you annualise that they are between 2.1 and 3.2 percent annually. Ninety percent of our members under this offer would receive about 1.16 percent per year. "So yet another under CPI [consumer price index] real term pay cut for senior doctors and dentists." Health NZ had refused to discuss details of how the proposed incentive fund would be applied, nor was the agency prepared to "cement it" in the collective agreement, she said. "A capped sum of $17m a year for recruitment and retention doesn't really stack up compared with the $384m they're currently paying contingent staff. "There's quite a lot to say about Health NZ as an incompetent employer, which is driving people out of salaried work into locum work and temporary gigs." With no clear indication of how the payments would be disbursed, there was a risk that Health NZ would want to scrap other allowances already in place, she said. "We've seen this shambolic approach to the ED shift allowance that we won in the last bargaining round and which is still not properly applied across the country. "So I guess our trust in the competence of Health NZ to put these things in place is very low." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
28-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Dargaville Hospital loses its only full-time doctor
Dargaville Hospital has lost its last full-time doctor. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Dargaville Hospital has lost its last full-time doctor, the latest setback in a staffing crisis affecting many rural hospitals around the country. Health New Zealand said the doctor's departure is unfortunate, but it has enough staff to keep the hospital running on the current roster, and there won't be any change to staffing levels in place since late last year. The 12-bed Northland hospital came close to shutting down last October when it could no longer find enough doctors to fill the 24-hour roster. The inpatient ward now runs without a doctor most nights. Instead, overnight care is provided by nurses backed up by a telehealth service, in which a doctor at another location offers advice via phone or video call when needed. Hopes of returning to 24-hour medical cover slipped further out of reach at the end of June with the loss of the hospital's only remaining full-time doctor. Rural medicine specialist Josh Griffiths, a member of the ASMS doctors' union, said the hospital now had two-and-a-half full-time-equivalent (FTE) doctors, when four were needed. "We were already not in a great place, staffing wise. When she was here, we were down to about two thirds of our job-sized FTEs. With her gone, that takes us down to about half." Dr Griffiths said the doctor's departure was a blow because she was committed to Dargaville - she had even bought a home in the town - and had specifically sought a position in rural Northland when she was recruited from the US about three years ago. Dr Griffiths said the remaining doctors were doing extra day shifts to fill the roster, but that was balanced by fewer night shifts now the hospital no longer had a doctor on duty 24 hours. They had, however, hoped to return to 24-hour cover at some point. "This just takes us a step further away from reinstating full services, which is really disheartening," he said. Dargaville Hospital serves about 27,000 people living in the town (pictured) and surrounding Kaipara District. Photo: Peter de Graaf/RNZ Mike Shepherd, acting deputy chief executive for Health NZ's northern region, said Kaipara residents continued to receive the same level of service from Dargaville Hospital as they had since November. "We have received the resignation of one of our doctors and clearly that's unfortunate, but we continue to have enough doctors to staff the roster without impacting the service for patients," he said. "We're continuing to actively recruit to further staff, as you'd expect, and we don't anticipate any change to service to the community." Shepherd said Health NZ had yet to decide whether to try to reinstate 24-hour cover. "We're having that conversation... Our priority at the moment is to continue to provide what we are providing. We think we're providing a good service during the day, and a safe service overnight using the range of treatment and staff that we have." Shepherd said the number of calls nurses were making to Emergency Consult, the hospital's telehealth provider, had decreased as they became more skilled at managing issues in the ward overnight. Meanwhile, Dr Griffiths said he had mixed views on telehealth. He believed it was safe and essential, because it was filling a gap that could have otherwise forced the hospital to close. "But it doesn't always work out great for patients. We now transfer anyone unstable to Whangārei but that means a massive increase in the use of ambulance transfers, which is a problem for St John who are also struggling with staffing in rural areas. It's also problematic for patients who want to be cared for close to home." Dr Griffiths said it also put extra strain on Whangārei Hospital, because patients that could have been treated in Dargaville were now sent there. Another problem was that patients who were not particularly ill could not be sent home because they could not be fully assessed overnight. "So they're either transferred to Whangārei or kept in Dargaville overnight where they can be monitored, and the next day the doctor has an increase in workload because stuff's been deferred from overnight... So, it's safe, but it's clearly sub-optimal, and a lot of patients tell me that they're dissatisfied because they can't really be dealt with by telehealth, they're just deferred or transferred." Dr Griffiths said he was "really proud" of the way Dargaville's nurses had stepped up. "It's resulted in a lot of upskilling, and nurse management has taken a proactive stance by trying to get people through courses to educate them more on managing emergencies in a way they wouldn't have had to previously, because the doctor would have taken the lead," he said. "Some of them have taken to it really well. Others are not really happy because it's different to what they signed up for. I'm also worried about our senior nurses, because they're compensating for the lack of doctor cover by being on call for critical issues 24/7, and sharing that amongst themselves." Dr Griffiths acknowledged that recruiting doctors was difficult worldwide, not just in Dargaville. "But I do think there are specific things that could be done better, which we've pushed for, and we've had a really lacklustre response." In particular, he said Health NZ should increase the rural recruitment and retention bonus paid to doctors who took up jobs in hard-to-staff places like Dargaville. As for the improved after-hours medical service promised in May by Health Minister Simeon Brown, Dr Griffiths said it was a positive move, but he was surprised no one at the hospital had heard about it before the announcement. He hoped officials would talk to locals and find out what was needed, rather than impose a top-down solution. Brown told RNZ the $164 million programme to expand and strengthen after-hours healthcare across the country would be rolled out during 2026 and 2027. He said Health NZ was currently considering the model and specific timing for the service. Within Northland, better after-hours access would be provided in Dargaville, Hokianga, Kaikohe, Kaitaia, Kawakawa, Mangawhai and Waipapa. Health NZ was also working on improved access to daytime urgent care in Dargaville, he said. Brown said he also expected Health NZ to continue recruiting clinical staff for Dargaville Hospital. "I have received assurances that Health NZ are doing so, and that existing services for patients will be maintained while this is underway," he said. Dargaville Hospital serves a population of about 27,000 people. The nearest secondary-level hospital is at Whangārei, about an hour's drive away on State Highway 14. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
23-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Delays at Nelson hospital becoming "dangerous"
health infrastructure 28 minutes ago Ageing infrastructure, persistent delays in recruiting staff and an increasing demand for services have been identified as some of the issues facing Nelson Hospital. A review was commissioned after several doctors spoke to media about their longstanding concerns over staffing and patient safety. But it stopped short of explaining how these problems would be solved. Anaesthetist at Nelson Hospital and the president of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Dr Katie Ben spoke to Melissa Chan-Green.
