Senior Doctors Warned to Steer Clear of Queensland

MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,
WEDNESDAY, 13 NOVEMBER 2013

“New Zealand Senior Doctors Warned to Steer Clear of Queensland”

“New Zealand senior doctors are being warned to steer clear of considering employment opportunities in Queensland public hospitals,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today. Mr Powell was commenting on the Association’s electronic publication ASMS Direct sent to its members earlier today.

“The Queensland government has proposed a draconian employment law largely targeted at public hospital doctors which will severely weaken their right to negotiate collectively and provide them with fewer rights and protection. These rights and protections will be significantly weaker compared with the other Australian states and New Zealand.”

“This reactionary law would, if enacted, increase the power of the government and health bureaucrats over hospital doctors. It is driven by ideological zeal.”

“Ironically this new law would undo the good that was achieved by collective bargaining that overcame Queensland’s hospital doctor recruitment and retention crisis that was a major cause of the Bundaberg patient deaths tragedy around a decade ago. Removing the solution to a patient safety crisis and risking that crisis returns defies sanity.”

“Queensland public hospitals have benefitted greatly by recruiting hospital specialists from New Zealand because we have the same training schemes.,” concluded Mr Powell

ENDS

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