Battle lines drawn over rostered hours
The AMA (WA) has made it abundantly clear to hospital administrators and the WA Government that
it will not tolerate Junior Doctors being used as sacrificial lambs in any attempts to slash
3 per cent off the Health Budget.
Director General Dr Peter Flett first revealed in March that savings could be achieved by changes
to JD's overtime, but alarm bells were sounded more recently when representatives from the Royal
Perth Hospital JMO steering committee were advised that the hospital intended making significant
changes to substantive rosters for JDs.
The Association understands the roster changes are designed to save the equivalent of up to
16 FTEs which raises serious concerns about the impact on frontline services, patient care, extra
workloads, training and unpaid overtime.
The AMA (WA) has held meetings with the DIT Committee to prepare an action plan for dealing
with the issue and has written to:
On April 2 correspondence was also forwarded to Dr Flett seeking assurances that JDs would be
paid for hours worked.
The Association has not yet had the courtesy of a response from either hospital or Dr Flett.
View the latest Industrial Update.
AMA (WA) President Prof Gary Geelhoed has raised the issue with Health Minister Dr Kim Hames
and hopes to meet with him next week to try and resolve the problem, particularly given the Minister
publicly pledged that any Budget savings would not impact on frontline services.
Meanwhile, the Association has surveyed Junior Doctors throughout WA on the issue and will publish
the results on its website shortly.
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