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Media Statements

22 June 2007

Southland Senior Doctor Stopwork Meeting Confirmed

“The date of the senior doctor stopwork meeting in Southland have been confirmed as part of the unprecedented national stopwork meetings over the impasse in the national collective agreement negotiations with district health boards,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.  This is not strike action and emergency cover will continue to be provided.

“The Southland DHB has been formally notified that the two-hour stopwork meeting will be held on Thursday 26 July commencing at 1.30pm in Invercargill.”

“The impasse is over the failure of the DHBs to recognise the severity of New Zealand’s increasing difficulty in recruiting and retaining quality senior doctors.  The Southland stopwork meeting is especially significant as this DHB has one of the worst senior doctor recruitment and retention situations in the country.  It is the sign of things to come for the rest of New Zealand unless there is a significant turn-around.”

“The DHB has deliberately been given much more notice than the legal two week requirement in order that DHBs will not schedule operations and clinics during these periods of time so that patient inconvenience is minimised and as much as possible no patient faces the cancellation of scheduled appointments or procedures,” concluded Mr Powell.

Ian Powell
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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