Category: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists

Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Annual Conference Programme now available

The 33rd ASMS Annual Conference is fast-approaching and we now have a confirmed programme.
Due to Covid restrictions the Conference is being held virtually and will run over just one day on Thursday 25 November.
Despite that we have organised an interesting line-up of speakers, including the Health Minister Andrew Little who will give an opening address.
You can see the full programme by clicking here.
Registrations are still open. You can register here .
Look forward to seeing you on your screens on Conference day.
 
 
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Senior doctors need more than hollow words as Australia comes knocking

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora is calling on the Government to put words into action when it comes to valuing frontline health workers, with Australia poised to bring in thousands of extra clinical staff.
The Health Minister Andrew Little said this week that health workers should feel assured that the pressure they are under, is not unnoticed.
“When you’ve been offered a zero percent pay rise, which effectively amounts to a pay cut, and no prospect of better staffing and conditions, those words seem very hollow,” says ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton.
The senior doctor workforce is fatigued and demoralised as it juggles entrenched staffing shortages and overstretched services, alongside the immediate threat of Covid and resulting patient backlogs.
ASMS and DHBs are due to go into mediation next month over stalled collective contract negotiations for senior hospital doctors and dentists.
ASMS is asking for a very modest pay rise to simply reflect cost of living increases, but DHBs have continued to come back with a zero offer.
“Employer gratitude should not equal pay restraint, especially at a time when our doctors, who work tirelessly for the public health system, are being asked to step up, cover staffing gaps, work longer hours and make personal sacrifices to keep their patients and their families safe during Covid,” Sarah Dalton says.
Australia is reportedly set to allow 2,000 overseas doctors and nurses into the country to ease a healthcare staffing crisis there.
“With specialists earning up to 60% more in Australia, it’s a very promising option. We’ve had members writing to us saying they are being regularly targeted by Australian medical recruiters offering to double their current salaries”.
“Our doctors are keeping New Zealanders safe and holding our health system together. The Government needs to show senior medical and dental specialists the same commitment and give them a reason to stay,” says Sarah Dalton.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Priority MIQ for essential health workers applauded

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora is welcoming the Government’s announcement to guarantee 300 Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) spaces a month for much-needed health professionals.
Border closures have exacerbated problems in an already stretched health system. ASMS understood that 100 of the 250 requests made by DHBs in recent months to prioritise health staff had been rejected.
ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says not being able to get desperately-needed health staff into the country has been a frustration.
“We were hearing how broken the MIQ system was for health professionals, and it was something we had repeatedly raised. We are thrilled the Government has listened and taken action.”
Even without Covid, hospitals and health services have been struggling with significant staffing shortages.
“Services are crying out for skilled staff. The number of vacancies is putting senior clinicians under immense pressure and is a major cause of burnout. It didn’t make sense to have people stranded overseas,” she says.
Earlier this month the head of Southland Hospital’s Obstetrics and Gynaecology service, Dr Jim Faherty, made headlines when he couldn’t get a spot in MIQ and his absence forced the hospital to consider downgrading its maternity unit.
Sarah Dalton says that illustrates just how fragile the staffing situation and system is.
“Endemic Covid will stretch resources further and highlights the need for proper workforce supply planning,” she says.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Endemic Covid will expose lack of health workforce investment and cost lives

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialist Toi Mata Hauora says endemic Covid is set to expose the long-term lack of investment and planning in New Zealand’s health workforce, costing lives.
The Government has detailed how the health system will deal with the expected increase in Covid cases.
ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says frontline ICU specialists do not share the Government’s confidence around ICU bed capacity and there are real fears about what lies ahead.
“We have been repeatedly told by our ICU specialists that there has been no meaningful investment or expansion in ICU capacity and in many parts of the country staffing levels are running at unsafe levels.”
“A number of our regional hospitals won’t be able to keep patients because their ICUs are so poorly equipped, meaning staff and patients will have to be juggled across different parts of the country”.
One ICU specialist recently said they only had two specialists left in their department and if one is sick the other must work continuously. That senior doctor had recently worked 84 hours in one week – 14 of those unpaid.
All parts of the health system are under pressure and as more resources are shifted to deal with Covid, backlogs will get bigger and there will be even longer delays in diagnosing and treating patients.
“That is an added stress for senior clinicians who will be forced to make the tough decisions around further rationing of patient care,” Sarah Dalton says.
“Planned care is already being delayed due to overwhelming acute demand, even in regions which haven’t seen Covid cases yet”.
Irrespective of the size and nature of any Covid surge the health system must make workforce planning and supply its number one focus.
“It’s all very well to acknowledge the pressure our doctors are under, but it’s time for the Government to show some commitment to keeping them safe and supported which includes fair pay and decent conditions of work,” she says.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Mandatory vaccination welcome – booster planning next step

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora says planning for Covid boosters must follow today’s decision on mandatory vaccination for health workers.
ASMS welcomes mandatory vaccination for health workers as a common-sense decision and senior doctors are actively promoting vaccination in their workplaces and communities.
Executive Director Sarah Dalton says there had been some disquiet among senior clinicians about having unvaccinated staff working in our hospitals and health services.
“It’s been an added stress in an already stressed environment. This will give everyone working in a healthcare or hospital setting reassurance around their own personal risk and safety”.
“We need our hospitals to be as safe as they can be for patients and the people who care for them”.
She says the focus now needs to shift to thinking about booster planning for frontline health workers.
“Some of our doctors are beginning to point to international research suggesting that boosters may be needed for those frontline staff who were part of the initial vaccine rollout”.
“It’s an issue we intend to bring up with the Ministry of Health this week”.
ASMS is also pleased that children’s health is being prioritised with mandatory vaccination being extended to teachers.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Welcome end to residency uncertainty – now let’s sort MIQ

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora says the Government’s move to fast-track residency visa applications is a positive step, but urgent consideration now needs to be given to prioritising medical staff into MIQ.
Thousands of people have been waiting to apply for residency visas since the processing of applications was paused around April last year.
Figures obtained by RNZ under the Official Information Act on 31 August, showed there were 675 doctors and just over 2,200 nurses waiting to apply for residence under the skilled migrant category.
ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says today’s announcement follows months of lobbying and will end the uncertainty for hundreds of much-needed medical specialists, who can now plan to put down permanent roots in New Zealand.
“We were facing a situation where these overseas-trained doctors, who New Zealand relies so heavily on to staff our hospitals, were living in limbo and being forced to leave or reconsider their futures here”.
One provincial hospital was at risk of losing four desperately needed radiologists.
“With gaping staffing shortages across so many specialties in our hospitals, and services struggling to keep up with demand, we can ill afford to be losing valuable, highly skilled people out of the system,” Sarah Dalton says.
“It also highlights the fact that currently there is no national plan to tackle entrenched workforce shortages as far as we can see. This must be a number one priority for the new Health NZ and Māori Health Authority”.
Given Covid and the vulnerable state of the health workforce ASMS is calling for support from the Government in fast-tracking health workers into the country.
“We don’t understand why direct requests by DHBs to expedite MIQ for urgently needed health workers seem to be falling on deaf ears, especially when priority spaces are found for sports teams and other individuals,” Sarah Dalton says.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Our new report – a roadmap to health equity by 2040

In July ASMS co-hosted a virtual conference with the Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust to look at stark health inequities in Aotearoa New Zealand and look at solutions. Out of that we have written a report – Creating Solutions Te Ara Whai Tika which sets out a policy roadmap to health equity by 2040.
The Creating Solutions Te Ara Whai Tika report finds that based on current trends, it will take a century for Māori to catch up with pakeha New Zealanders in terms of life expectancy.
It recommends a national goal of achieving health equity for all New Zealanders by 2040 and lays out a roadmap of policies to get there.
It follows presentations, discussions, and input from more than 200 health professionals who attended a virtual conference co-hosted by ASMS and the Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust, established by Dame Sue and Associate Professor Phil Bagshaw.
Not only is there a gap in life expectancy between Māori and pakeha males of about 7.6 years, the gap in life expectancy between the wealthiest and the poorest and middle-income New Zealanders is widening. The wealthiest 10% of New Zealanders can now expect to live a decade longer than the poorest 10%, who are disproportionately Māori and Pasifika.
Health equity means everyone has the opportunity and support to live the healthiest life they can.
ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says unfortunately, that’s a very distant reality in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“It is shocking to think that we have some groups of people dying ten years sooner than others and successive governments have failed to act”.
“Our doctors and nurses are treating patients in hospitals only to send them back home to the conditions that made them sick in the first place. You cannot have a fit-for-purpose public hospital system without addressing core social issues like poverty, racism, poor housing and unhealthy foods”.
“Currently we wait until people are so sick, they get admitted to hospital to receive diagnosis and treatment. This is without doubt the least cost-effective way to run our health system. It leads to overburdened hospitals, long wait times, and burned-out healthcare workers,” Sarah Dalton says.
The report recommends that cost barriers such as GP user charges must be removed to help the estimated 540,000 adult New Zealanders who can’t access a GP due to cost. In addition, more than 1.7 million adults can’t access a dentist due to user charges.
Health inequities cost New Zealand billions of dollars in avoidable illness and hospitalisations. Addressing them would bring economic benefits such as improved productivity, higher tax revenues and reduced costs in social and government allowances.
Health inequity has been a long time in the making, and recently it has been magnified by the Covid pandemic.
Sarah Dalton says “if we want to rebuild our economy and future proof our health system, health equity must be front and centre, especially as the Government pushes ahead with wholesale health sector reform. Having a Māori Health Authority with full commissioning rights is one very positive step in the right direction”.
The ASMS Creating Solutions report recommends a package of policies to help New Zealand achieve a goal of health equity by 2040.
It is being presented to the Government as an urgent call to target its health and wellbeing spend where it’s most needed.
Read the full report here
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Senior doctors call for strong clinical voice to lead health reforms

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora welcomes the appointment of one of its members to the interim board of Health New Zealand, saying the voice of frontline clinicians must be heard as the Government pushes forward with sweeping health reform.
Dr Curtis Walker, who is also the Chair of the Medical Council, has been named as one of eight members of Health New Zealand which, along with the Māori Health Authority, will lead the establishment of the new health system.
ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says as a working hospital doctor, Dr Walker can bring a unique clinical perspective to the group’s work.
ASMS believes the scale and timeframe for the implementation of the reforms will pose a formidable challenge.
“It’s fair to say there is both scepticism and trepidation among senior doctors about whether the reforms will actually make a difference to their lived reality of unsustainable workloads, staffing shortages and overstretched services and whether, ultimately, they can deliver improved patient care,” Sarah Dalton says.
“You can change structures all you like but at the end of the day our health system needs to be about patient care and that requires ongoing investment and the right resources in the right places”.
Sarah Dalton says the senior medical workforce is key to making the reforms work.
“Senior doctors and dentists need strong signals that they are valued. They must be given the opportunity to share their views frankly and take a leading role in decision-making at both the national and local level”.
ASMS publicly supported the Māori Health Authority with full commissioning rights as a new pathway to deliver health equity for Māori.
“We look forward to meeting and working with both the Māori Health Authority and Health NZ teams and remind them that ongoing engagement and consultation with health unions will be critical,” Sarah Dalton says.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Ten-year mental health plan could prove a long wait

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora is greeting a new plan to improve mental health with cautious optimism but warns ten years could prove a very long wait.
The Government has announced a ten-year strategy – Kia Manawanui – to set goals on mental health and support the delivery of mental health services.
ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says the explosion in demand for specialist mental health services has deepened a crisis which requires urgent action.
A recent ASMS report What Price Mental Health? pointed out that the number of inpatient mental health beds per population has fallen by nearly 10% in the past five years. DHBs frequently exceed 100% occupancy for mental health inpatient beds, when 85% occupancy is considered clinically safe.
“One psychiatrist recently told me he dreaded being on call in the weekends because there is nowhere safe to put the numbers of seriously ill patients. It’s a bleak situation and so many frontline staff report they are at breaking point,” Sarah Dalton says.
New Zealand also has very low numbers of practising psychiatrists per capita. Most DHBs are carrying major psychiatry staffing vacancies and overseas-trained psychiatrists are relied on to fill the gaps.
Part of the Government’s plan will put a welcome focus on workforce development.
“We would expect to have input into that and would like to see a workforce census established so we know exactly where the staffing gaps are,” Sarah Dalton says.
“The fact psychiatry is the second bottom choice for New Zealand medical school graduates is telling. We need to make it a more appealing pathway by showing value for our mental health workers and improving their working conditions”.
No mention is made in the Government’s strategy of more investment in mental health facilities which Sarah Dalton describes as disappointing given so many of our mental health wards and buildings are old, cramped and no longer fit-for-purpose.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Annual conference registrations are now open

This year’s 33rd annual conference will be a  one-day virtual meeting on 25 November. The Health Minister will give an address and there will be an AGM along with guest speakers.
You can click here to register.
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