The Health Minister is standing by his criticism of doctors as the feud over a mega strike escalates, and says he might consider a law change.
Simeon Brown has accused doctors of “crossing an ethical line” with industrial action that “was hurting patients” during a speech at the senior doctors’ annual conference.
That’s angered doctors, who are set to strike over pay and conditions next week.
However, leading patient advocate Malcolm Mulholland said the minister’s comments on a possible law change were “pathetic”.
“I think the reason why our doctors and our nurses are striking is because there’s just simply not enough staff. I don’t know how many times they have to tell him until they are blue in the face,” he said.
“You know, all this talk about crossing an ethical line, I would say take a look in the mirror, minister.”
Mulholland, from the group Patient Voice Aotearoa said most patients were “hugely supportive” of doctors striking because they knew the system was failing both patients and health workers.
People instead blamed the government – and successive governments – for the strikes and wanted the government to sort the problems, he said.
Speaking to Morning Report on Friday, Brown doubled-down on his comments.
“Multiple strikes have a long and hard impact on patients, the patients who they are there to serve. It is their duty to serve those patients and by the union choosing to continuing to pursue strike action, that is crossing an ethical line.”
He said he would rather these issues be dealt with through negotiations, or, if needed, arbitration.
Brown said the union continues to reject the offers made. The most recent offer was a 5% pay rise over 16 months.
“We have massive wait lists, which we are starting to see progress and reducing, thanks to the efforts of our doctors and nurses. But the unions, who are refusing to come to the table and make sure that we can sort through these issues in a responsible manner, continue to strike.”
Brown acknowledged a right to strike is a legal right, but said changes to the law may have to be considered for life services.
“I think if strike action continues, that may well have to be considered. I would like to find a way that we can resolve this issue.”
Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall, who is a former senior doctor, said his comments were unjustified and would only make it harder to get a settlement.
“Simeon Brown needs to grow up,” she told RNZ. “He needs to stop taking these public positions that are designed to provoke and make it harder to reach a settlement.
“He is issuing a threat to remove the right to strike while these parties are in bargaining – that is not in good faith.”
Verrall said he should instead be trying to cool the situation so that both sides could move forward.
“Ive been both a senior doctor and the minister of health and my perspective that the behaviour the minister is showing is unlikely to settle this collective aggrement negotiation,” she said.
It comes ahead of further strike action next week.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton told Checkpoint after the minister’s comments that he was wrong to suggest striking health workers had forgotten about patients.
“In fact that is a key driver in what is pushing our members to take strike action in the face of Health NZ and a government that is deaf to what is really going on with our health workforce.”
Doctors did not want to strike, but many more patients were missing out on care due to ongoing workforce shortages than were affected by industrial action, she said.
Dalton said when Brown accused the union of walking away from negotiations, he ignored the fact that the union had made two requests to Health NZ’s negotiating team for talks in the last month, both of which were rejected.
Senior doctors would be joining the strike set for later this month.
It’s been coined a “mega strike” and is shaping up to be the largest in decades, with an estimated 100,000 workers involved, including nurses, dentists, healthcare workers and teachers.
rnz.co.nz
