BY NATALIE GALLENTI
EMERGENCY doctors at Sunshine, Footscray and Williamstown hospitals may go on strike placing extra pressure on strained emergency rooms.
Western Health said last week that doctors would not strike and the parties had reached an agreement over physician wages, but Secretary of the Victorian Emergency Physicians Association Allan Whitehead told Star the matter was yet to be resolved.
Dr Whitehead said physicians may launch industrial action depending on the outcome of a ballot to be held in November.
Physicians had been battling with Western Health to reach an agreement for the past three years and were now “frustrated” and “tired”, Dr Whitehead said.
“Emergency physicians have been backed into a corner by Western Health Service’s refusal to recognise a new enterprise agreement bringing their working conditions into line with colleagues across Melbourne,” Dr Whitehead said.
“These doctors thought they had an agreement signed, sealed and delivered with hospital management after nearly three years of negotiation, but the last minute backdown has sapped their morale and created a complete breakdown of trust.
“The doctors feel they have no option but to impose industrial bans.”
He said the decision to back out of the agreement had placed extra pressure on the already stretched emergency departments, particularly Sunshine Hospital that has experienced a doubling in patient demand over the past decade, despite doctor numbers remaining stagnant.
“Their (physicians) attention and attrition rate is significantly worse and there is a high resignation rate.
“These hospitals are seeing many more patients but are losing physicians and aren’t able to recruit more.”
Dr Whitehead said if the 2 November ballot was successful physicians may indeed walk off the job.
Dr Whitehead, an emergency department physician for 10 years, said patients would be affected dramatically if doctors decided to strike with younger staff members forced to work in an unfamiliar environment.
“Faster decisions are made by emergency specialists, which means the quality of care will be affected and patients will be waiting much longer.”
The threat of strike action comes in the wake of a report which revealed Western Hospital ranked under the benchmark for the Victorian Patient Satisfaction Monitor.
Western Hospital’s emergency department spent 3.2 per cent of the 2009-10 financial year on bypass, because it was filled to capacity and could not safely accommodate and treat more patients.
A total of 90 patients spent more than 24 hours in the emergency department and 50 per cent of emergency patients had to wait up to eight hours for a bed.
Western Health chief executive Kathryn Cook said they were optimistic the matter would be finalised in the near future.
“We have the greatest respect for the skill and commitment of our emergency department physicians and the organisation is committed to providing a safe and high quality service across each of its three emergency department sites,” Ms Cook said.
