Thousands of NSW doctors from over 30 hospitals in NSW have taken strike action for the first time since 1998.
The doctors defied NSW Industrial Relations Commission orders not to strike and walked out on strike for three days to join angry protests outside Sydney and regional hospitals.
Their union, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (ASMOF), is calling on the government to agree to, “safe working hours, a minimum 10-hour break between shifts, and proper staffing”.
Pay is also an issue, with NSW massively lagging behind other states. Western Sydney doctor Zachary McPherson told SBS, “Any one of our doctors here striking today could make 20 or 30 per cent more money just by simply moving to Brisbane or Melbourne.”
At the St George Hospital rally Dr Benhy Samati, an intensive care specialist, told the crowd:
“This is not just about us doctors. This is about trying to unbreak a broken system. How can we keep patients safe when we ourselves are not safe and we work in unsafe working conditions?”
But the doctors face an intransigent Minns government that is determined to hold down public sector pay and conditions.
The government met the strike with a vicious campaign of smears as well as threats of disciplinary action and even de-registration. At Westmead Hospital security guards were used to intimidate doctors, instructing them to remove union badges and posters.
Dominic Horne, an Anaesthetics registrar speaking at St George Hospital said: “Stop trying to bully us. We’ve all had threats of litigation. We’ve all had threats that our registration will be pulled.”
The government’s lies were appalling. The office of Health Minister Ryan Park told the media 486 chemotherapy appointments had been cancelled due to the strike. But not long after his office was forced to admit this was an “error”.
It is the Minns government that is endangering patients, not the strikes. According to ASMOF:
“Doctors across this state are working 16-hour shifts, day after day, with little rest and no end in sight. They are exhausted, they are leaving, and they are not being replaced.”
Outside Westmead Hospital one doctor told the crowd that he had worked 135 hours in the past fortnight, with one day off, covering 150 patients per shift.
Meanwhile Minns is building a new $309 million stadium in Penrith and pouring billions into the Western Sydney Aerotropolis which includes a major arms manufacturing facility.
Minns has clearly been shaken by the strike. But ASMOF has now given him what he wants and agreed to obey an IRC order for a three month ban on strikes as a show of “good faith”. Expecting any good faith from Minns is a dead end—for the doctors to win the strikes must continue.
By Adam Adelpour
