By Ruza Zivkusic
SOME of Sunshine Hospital’s doctors walked off the job last Thursday and joined 800 others across Victoria while seeking a five per cent pay rise.
They were objecting to the State Government’s offer of a 2.5 per cent pay rise.
The action had little impact on patients at the Sunshine Hospital, the hospital’s public affairs manager Anne Learmonth said.
She said the hospital had arranged “appropriate cover” to ensure there were few disruptions.
“Across the Western Health network, less than 20 doctors went off work. The walkout actually had a minimal impact on us,” Ms Learmonth said.
Australian Medical Association Victoria (AMA) president Dr Mark Yates said the Government had failed to address the primary problems of doctors’ pay and conditions.
He said the Government’s pay rise offer was “insulting”.
“Doctors in New South Wales are paid 56 per cent more an hour than in Victoria. Doctors in Queensland are paid 50 per cent more,” Dr Yates said.
“We asked for a very reasonable increase over three years and we’ve asked for a change in condition so that doctors can be directly engaged in improving the quality of care in Victorian public hospitals.”
He said the government did not acknowledge the risk that public hospitals would find it difficult to recruit new doctors.
Dr Yates, who is a practising doctor in Ballarat and who is looking for a new doctor for his clinic, said it was difficult to recruit people when there were better pay options available interstate.
“Would you choose to stay in Victoria and be paid $100,000 less in a year?” he said.
Doctors from 14 hospitals across Victoria attended the hour-long meeting at the Melbourne Convention Centre last Tuesday.
