Senior Doctors Launch Major Quality Care Campaign

ATTENTION: HEALTH REPORTER NO. OF PAGES:4 (INCLUDES ATTACHMENT)

MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,
TUESDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2001

“SENIOR HOSPITAL DOCTORS LAUNCH MAJOR QUALITY CARE CAMPAIGN”

“Senior hospital doctors have launched a major quality care campaign intended to better ensure that patients receive the standard of care that they deserve,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today. The Association’s National Executive approved the campaign last week.
“The purpose of the campaign is to require district health boards to guarantee that senior doctors receive a minimum of 30% of their time for routine duties and responsibilities for work not associated with the care of a specific patient. Examples include peer review, teaching, professional development and education, quality improvement initiatives and journal reading.”
“Senior doctors have been under increasing pressure for several years to be busier and busier to the point where quality standards become compromised. Many managers only give lip service to quality and regard hospitals as factory production lines. There is much more to the work of a senior doctor than operating theatres, clinics and ward rounds.”
“We will be seeking to provide this quality guarantee in the collective agreements we negotiate with district health boards. Relying on the goodwill or policy discretion of managers is simply not reliable or good enough.”
“We hope that district health boards will support this campaign so that patients receive the quality of care that they deserve and taxpayers pay for,” concluded Mr Powell.

Ian Powell
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

For further information please contact:
04 499.1271 work
Attachment: Association Annual Conference Discussion Paper, November 2000

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