Disturbing Number of Senior Doctors on Fixed Term Contracts

Disturbingly High Number of Senior Doctors Being Appointed on Fixed Term Contracts

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) is concerned by the number of senior doctors hired on fixed term rather than permanent employment contracts in district health boards (DHBS) in the past two years.

“An ASMS survey found that 20% had been taken on under fixed term contracts, which we find disturbingly high,” says Ian Powell, ASMS Executive Director.

The ASMS survey was carried out between 17 July and 15 August 2014. It was sent to 471 ASMS members who had been appointed within DHBs within the past two years. Of those, 226 answered the survey, a response rate of 48%.

Respondents were spread across DHBs and a wide range of medical specialties, and were also evenly split between international medical graduates (IMGs) and New Zealand-trained doctors. They were asked questions about their appointments, the advice they had sought, and the collegial and DHB support they had received.

“It is perfectly fine for DHBs to use fixed term appointments to cover staff leave or to cover a position before a permanent appointee is able to start work, but it’s not acceptable to use these contracts as a sort of trial to test the applicant’s suitability,” says Mr Powell.

“It’s unfair on the hospital specialist who isn’t able to make long-term plans with any degree of certainty and it’s not in the best interests of hospitals or patients in terms of workforce planning and security of service.”

He says overseas-trained doctors, in particular, may not be familiar with important aspects of New Zealand’s employment laws when they take up positions here. For instance, they often do not realise that this country’s employment laws generally require job offers to be for permanent positions. The exception is when an employer has a ‘genuine reason’ to offer a non-permanent position.

“It’s not enough for a DHB to offer some vague reason about workflow or funding uncertainty, they need to actually have good grounds for offering a fixed term contract.

“When I discuss this with DHB bosses they claim that their policy is to offer permanent employment for permanent positions but these survey results show a much different situation,” says Mr Powell.

He encouraged specialists to contact the ASMS for advice if they felt pressured to sign a fixed term contract without good reason, and he says ASMS will continue to monitor the use of fixed term contracts by DHBs.

The ASMS survey also found that 73% percent of new appointees rated as excellent the support they had received from their colleagues but just 35% commended the support from their DHB, and only 29% said they had been given a DHB mentor.

More information about the survey is available in the latest issue of The Specialist, available at www.asms.org.nz.

ENDS

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